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IDONOMUE>, MENlSrEBERRY & CO., F^iiblislners. 

40^-42^ Dearborn Si., CHICAGO. 

:he Optimus Series No. 23. April 15, 1892. Issued Semi-Monthly. Subscription Price $12 per year. 
Entered at the Chicago P. O. as Second-Class Matter. 




Carried away by her enthusiasm, she kneeled before Jean Levasseur. — p. 98 



“P’TIT HOMME” 


(Little man.) 



Adolph Belot. 


Translated from the French 
BY 

' W, w 'T 1 W E>. 

ir " - 


D 

L-' 

CHICAGO: b j ^ * - 

DONOHUE, HENNEBERRY & CO. 

1892. 


'PZi 


Copyrighted, 1892, by 
DONOHUE, HENNEBERRY & CO. 


All Rights Reserved, 


LITTLE MAN 

PART I 

I 

Rue Spontini, before merging on the one side into 
Avenue Victor Hugo, and on the other into Avenue 
du Bois-de-Boulogne, those old but stylish quarters 
of Paris, was merely a quiet and bourgeoisie street of 
Passy. There were then only to be seen small, plain 
houses, whose doors and windows opened directly on 
the street. To-day the eye of the pedestrian or of the 
passer-by falls upon a number of large houses of 
modern architecture and many smaller ones, sepa- 
rated from the street by railings. As for the old 
houses they have renewed their youth. They might 
pass from afar for new ones, with their bright paint, 
their artistic windows, were it not for the absence of 
railings, for the doors on a level with the street. If 
a window on the ground-floor were left open, one 
could pass with one stride from the sidewalk into 
the house. A great convenience, surely, for the 
master or servant who had forgotten his keys, and 
perhaps too great a convenience for thieves. 

Natural coquettes and artful ones, new houses and 
old, had indifferently very peaceful inhabitants — in- 
7 


8 


LITTLE MAN 


dependent gentlemen, pensioners, retired business 
men, seeking to prolong their lives in repose, in pure 
air, one foot in Paris, the other in the semi-country 
of the Bois-de-Boulogne and its lakes. But, by the 
side of those good people of the past, in their imme- 
diate neighborhood, very frequently lived a young 
man or woman still “on the turf,’^ to use a slang 
phrase. One had come to mourn an absent lover in 
solitude, or to hide forbidden love. Another was a 
philosopher, a student, a man of letters or an artist; 
sometimes he was a man of the world, scornful or 
sated with the charms of lovely women, and thinking 
to find something new, something better, something 
unfamiliar among the commoners or the women of the 
suburbs. 

The oldest pf those houses, but the one the most 
skillfully remodeled, was occupied — to be discreet, 
we will not give the exact date nor the true names 
of the personages in this true story — by Count 
Gontran de Platere, a man of some thirty years of 
age, very stylish, and rich enough to live well with- 
out committing too many follies, well-known in all 
countries. 

At the end of November, i88 — , at about three 
o’clock on a cloudy afternoon, a coupe, hired by the 
month, left M. de Platere in front of his hotel. He 
dismissed his coachman, and as he was searching for 
his key in order to enter his house, he perceived that 
the salon window was open, and that his servant, 
Charles Leflot, was in the room. 


LITTLE MAN 


9 


'^‘Charles,” he exclaimed, “let me in.’’ 

A second later, he crossed the vestibule and mounted 
the stairs, which were covered with a thick carpet, 
deadening all sound. Arrived at the first floor on 
thedanding-place, transformed, in order to aggran- 
dize the house, into a sort of small waiting-room, he 
raised a portiere and entered a large room with low 
divans around it, in Oriental style, with large cushions 
here and there, a small secretary in one corner, and 
which might serve either for smoking-room, study 
or boudoir. The bedroom was a continuation 'of 
that room and did not seem to ‘be separated from it 
on account of the absence of doors. 

Gontran de Platere gave his hat and cane to the 
small servant who had followed him, threw him his 
gloves, and advancing to the fireplace in which a 
bright fire burned, he took up a letter put in a con- 
spicuous place near the clock. 

“When did that come.?” he asked, glancing at the 
handwriting before breaking the seal. 

“Monsieur had just gone. It was about noon. It 
came by mail.” 

“I can see that, simpleton, since there is a post- 
mark.” 

As he spoke he drew the letter from its envelope, 
glanced rapidly through it, made a gesture of sur- 
prise, then, with a smile upon his lips, and with 
sparkling eyes, he turned to Charles: 

“ Did you go to Mile, de Lange’s during my absence .?” 


lO 


LITTLE MAN 


^‘Yes, sir/’ 

‘4s she still disposed to leave to-morrow by the 
nine o’clock express?” 

“Ah, I should think so! When Monte-Carlo is in 
the question, she does not have to be implored. 
Monsieur can get his bank-notes ready; the roulette 
awaits them.” 

Still smiling, at the remembrance, no doubt, of the 
letter he had just received, but in a tone which he 
attempted to render severe, he said: 

“Charles, you are indeed becoming very familiar; 
you must stop that, my boy.” 

As Charles, in confusion, lowered his bright eyes, 
and bowed his head, M. de Platere was tempted to 
regret his severity. He was fond of the boy, grown 
almost to manhood, whom his mother, an old serv- 
ant of the Plateres, had entrusted to him on her 
death-bed. “I shall die happy,” said she with clasped 
hands, “if you will promise me that he shall never 
leave you. Take him from this moment into your 
service, and may he always remain in it, as I re- 
mained with your father and mother.” Gontran prom- 
ised, and made of Charles, who often, with touching 
familiarity, he called “P’tit Homme,” a sort of page, 
but a page who was allowed many liberties, who was 
treated very kindly, and whom the count, in his leis- 
ure hours, taught — “In order to raise you later,” said 
he with a smile, “to the dignity of secretary.” The 
boy, mischievous at times, but ordinarily serious and 


LITTLE MAN 


II 


considerate, was very grateful for all his kindness, 
and loved as a father that affectionate master whose 
service was very light, the count lunching and dining 
at the club, and only looking upon the little hotel 
on Rue Spontini as a sort of haven in which to rest. 

“Did Mile.’ de Lange say that she would call for 
me to-day to dine as we agreed upon ?” he asked after 
again looking over the letter he had just received. 

“Yes, but a little later, at about half-past seven, 
replied Charles. 

“Does she not need you for her trunks, her final 
preparations.^’^ - 

“I think she would have liked to have kept me, but 
monsieur bade me return.” 

“I thought I should need you, I was mistaken. 
You can offer your services to Mile, de Lange; you 
can return with her at half-past seven.” 

“That is to say I annoy monsieur, and that he 
wishes to get rid of me,” said Charles boldly. 

“You bore me. Go, as quickly as possible.” 

“I ask nothing better! The lady who is coming will 
probably detain you in Paris.” 

“I expect no lady. I expect a gentleman on busi- 
ness. What makes you think I expect a lady 

“Monsieur has such a contented air.” 

“Indeed, did you perceive that.?” 

“Surely! I have good eyes.” 

“You will oblige me by closing them in future. So 
you do not like to have me leave to-morrow.?” 


12 


LITTLE MAN 


“What a question! Monsieur is not taking me with 
him !” 

“I will send for you when I am settled somewhere/’ 

“If Mile. Gabriellede Lange permits — and she will 
not.” 

“Why not, I pray you?” 

“I am too fond of you.” 

“She should be pleased at your devotion to me.” 

“Yes, if she really loved you, but she only cares 
for your money. She is not a good woman. Monsieur 
might have chosen better.” 

“Will you be silent?” 

“I know what I am saying!” 

“Will you go?” 

“I am going! I am going!” 

With those words he rushed toward the stairs 
which he cleared in two bounds. 

When alone, Gontran de Platere once more read 
the letter he still held in his hand: 

“Thank you, thank you, my friend, for granting 
my prayer, for consenting to leave Paris, for my 
peace of mind, at the commencement of winter, in 
the midst of all your enjoyment. I shall be grateful 
to you all my life for having saved me from myself — 
from the folly I might have committed. Yes, I can 
now say it — since you are so good, so generous, since 
you are going away. Often I feared some inconsid- 
erate act. But now I am reassured, I have become 


LITTLE MAN 


13 


sensible again. Thanks to you, I no longer fear any- 
thing, and to prove it to you, to prove that I have 
absolute faith in your loyalty, I yield to your prayer. 
Yes, for the first and last time, I will come to your 
house to-day to bid you farewell, to place my hands 
honorably, platonically in yours. Expect me at five 
o’clock. Admit me yourself. I tremble on writing 
this. Am I doing wrong No; you are only and will 
always be my friend. It has been vowed by you, by 
me. Mathilde.’^ 

After that last reading, he made a movement as if 
to throw the letter into the fire — and the wood 
which blazed up at that moment seemed to invite it 
— but, changing his mind, he placed it in a volumi- 
nous pocket-book which he drew from the pocket of 
his redingote. Then, as it still lacked several minutes 
of the hour of meeting, he thought of her whom he 
awaited: a very pretty woman who in every respect 
merited her reputation as a beauty; young, scarcely 
twenty-five, well-developed, a brunette, with a clear- 
cut profile, long, dreamy black eyes, red lips and 
pearly teeth. Her husband, young like herself, hand- 
some and affable, was Baron Robert de Cloziers, 
who, though titled, was not a wealthy man, and who 
engaged in business in order to add to his income; 
that is to say, who entered into any honest enter- 
prise in which he could make money without com- 
promising himself, without derogating from his dig- 
nity. Rich to-day in consequence of a fortunate veat^ 


14 


LITTLE MAN 


ure; poor to-morrow in consequence of a failure. 
He loved his wife devotedly, with all the strength of 
passion, and, for her part, she had loved him until 
the day on which she met Count Gontran de Platere. 
How had he attracted her? Probably by his reserve, 
his coldness, contrasting with the ardor of her hus- 
band, or for no reason at all. Can those infatuations 
of the most sensible women be explained and should 
we attempt to do so? For a year, they had met every 
week, often every day, at the theater, at a ball or a 
dinner. Then Gontran, who was fascinated by that 
great beauty, succeeded in entering the baroness’ 
home, under the pretext of business with her hus- 
band. Great was his astonishment: Mathilde de 
Cloziers, whom he thought half-conquered, made a 
long and stubborn resistance, so long, so stubborn, 
that the count determined it was useless to struggle 
any longer. Like a clever man who awaits his op- 
portunity in the future, and who never despairs of 
women, instead of withdrawing, he was dismissed. 

‘^Go away, I implore you,’^ she had said to him, 
and he went. But instead of going alone, and for 
her sake, as she thought, in her innocence, he sim- 
ply went to winter at Nice with Gabrielle de Lange, 
a demi-mondaute, by whose side he hoped to forget 
the invincible baroness. 

Would she still be invincible on that special day? 
Was she really coming to his house as a friend who 
believed she was fulfilling a duty of friendship, and 


LITTLE MAN 


15 


with the firm desire, the serious conviction of being 
respected? He would be able to divine that after a 
few moments’ conversation, and he would act accord- 
ingly. However, he placed great hope in the issue 
of that final struggle. 

Five o’clock. She might arrive any minute. That 
she might not wait after having rung, he descended 
to the ground-floor and paced the hall with impa- 
tience, with agitation. Suddenly he remembered that 
the window of the salon was open when he arrived. 
Had his servant, before going out, thought of closing 
it? He turned towards the salon in order to find out, 
when he heard the bell. 

It was she. Prudently, fearing the coachman, she 
had dismissed him and had come part of the way on 
foot. He opened the door. It was indeed she. In 
spite of the large cloak which covered her, he recog- 
nized her by her finely developed shoulders and bust, 
by the carriage of her head. He pressed her hand 
in silence and preceded her to show her the way. She 
followed him trembling, like a woman unaccustomed 
to paying visits of that kind. 

The hall, staircase and landing were lighted by 
iron lanterns. They reached the first floor. On the 
mantel-piece were candelabra, each containing four 
candles. 

She remained erect, motionless, in the middle of 
the boudoir, enveloped in her mantle and veil. 

“Shall you not lay that aside?” he asked in a gentle 
voice, approaching her. 


LITTLE MAN 


l6 


As she did not reply, being perhaps too startled, 
he skillfully unhooked her cloak and untied her veil. 
On raising it, he uncovered the upper part of her 
neck, plump but still delicate. Did that sight agitate 
him, or did it determine him to give battle.^ Which- 
ever it was, he stooped and pressed a hasty kiss upon 
it. 

At the same time. Baroness de Cloziers, turning 
her head, said to the count: 

‘‘That was wrong of you! I have placed so much 
confidence in you!’^ 

While he was wondering if that umbrage were gen- 
uine, she resumed very firmly, but without severity, 
as if it pained her to be obliged to speak thus: 

“I fear you have deceived yourself. It is my fault. 
I have thought about my letter since I wrote it, 
somewhat rashly. It may have inspired you with 
hope. Perhaps you said to yourself: ‘Those adieux 
are only a pretext for coming to my house. She is, 
this time, determined for — all. ' But, no ! When you 
said to me the day before yesterday: ‘I obey you, I 
shall go!’ I was deeply touched by that sacrifice, and 
I had only one thought, to thank you for it with all 
my heart, here, in your house, in order that the de- 
parture might be less sad — and that you might carry 
away with you a' pleasant memory — such as one has 
on leaving a friend, a sister. Nothing, nothing more, 
I assure you.’^ 

She was so resplendent at that moment and her 


LITTLE MAN 


17 


emotion lent her such a charm, that, notwithstanding 
the clearness of her language, he made one last 
struggle. 

“What you have just said to me,’^ said he, taking 
one of her hands, which she did not attempt to with- 
draw, “is very severe. Hove you, you know it, and — 
you have permitted me to believe that you loved me 
as^well.” 

“Yes, I have permitted that/^ said she boldly, with 
head erect, looking fixedly in his eyes. “You have 
greatly disturbed my peace of mind, I venture to say. 
Despite my resistance, my letters, you have taken 
my heart entirely. But is that any reason that I 
should do anything worse It may terminate fatally. 
I cannot tell. I do not think myself any stronger 
than many others who have finally succumbed, but 
I shall at least have struggled to the last against my- 
self, with all my courage, all my will, all the energy 
which I would employ to save you were you in peril, 
to avenge you were you harmed.’’ 

That time she convinced him of her sincerity, of 
her desire to remain pure. Men who have had much 
experience with the gentler sex are not deceived by 
those signs. Nothing to be done, they end by say- 
ing, and they are wise enough to desist. 

Gontran de Platere was one of those wise men, and 
seated on the large divan, beside Baroness de Cloz- 
iers, he contented himself with telling her again of 
his love and with hearing her tell of hers. 


i8 


LITTLE MAN 


“Already six clock,” said she suddenly, “I must 
go;” tenderly adding: “Adieu, my friend, my brother, 
I promise to remember you.” 

She hastily threw over her shoulders the cloak she 
had taken off on arriving, put on her veil before the 
glass at the mantel-piece, and, turning again to Gon- 
tran, with her back to the portiere which separated 
the boudoir from the landing, with a rapid move- 
ment, she extended to him both hands. 

They stood thus an instant, with clasped hands, 
looking at one another. Then, unconsciously per- 
haps, they drew nearer each other, their hearts met. 

Gazing into her eyes, his lips near hers, Gontran 
murmured: “Before parting, perhaps forever, one 
kiss— the first and the last.” 

She resisted a second, then their lips met. But 
scarcely had they met than a shot was fired and 
Count de Platere fell heavily to the floor. 



Count de Platere fell heavily to the floor. — p. i8 


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With a revolver still smoking- in his hand, a man 
stood motionless near the raised portiere. 

Mathilde recognized him. It was her husband, 
Baron Robert de Cloziers. 

She cast upon him a terrible glance, then, heedless 
of him, without considering if he would kill her too, 
she fell upon Gontran’s inanimate body, and spoke 
thus: “Do you see me? Do you hear me? Answer 

me, please. Oh, my God !” And terrified by the pal- 
lor of his face, by the rigidity of his form, by the 
blood which flowed in streams, she drew back, and his 
head which she had raised sank back heavily upon 
the floor. 

“He is dead! He is dead!” she repeated, and she 
then cried or rather essayed to cry, when sounds suc- 
ceeded in escaping her contracted throat: “Help! 
Help ! A doctor ! A doctor !” Alas ! who could hear 
her in that deserted house? Her husband only. But 
he remained in the same spot, motionless, mute, ter- 
rified as well at what he had done, at that sudden 
death which he had not anticipated, had not perhaps 
desired. 

However, he awoke from his stupor, when his wife 
19 


20 


LITTLE MAN 


turned towards him, and fearlessly, braving the pistol 
he still held in his hand, cried: 

^‘Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!’’ 

“I am not a murderer!” he murmured sadly, with- 
out anger — for his anger had disappeared, it was ap- 
peased by blood. 

“Murderer! Murderer!” 

“No, I am not a murderer,” he repeated louder, 
raising his head. “I am an outraged husband who 
has obtained justice!” 

“Justice! For what!” 

“He was your lover. I have killed him as I should 
have killed you too perhaps.” 

“Kill me then!” she cried. 

Rapidly she rose, rushed towards him, and pre- 
sented to him her breast. 

Still he did not stir; the hand which held the re- 
volver hung by his side. 

“The coward! The coward! He dares not — because 
I look him in the face. He only strikes from behind.” 

“How you loved him!” said he simply, in a voice 
profoundly sad. 

“Yes, I loved him. Was that his fault.? But it was 
the first time I was alone with him, the first time I 
entered this house — to which I carpe as a friend, as a 
sister.” 

“I surprised you in his arms.” 

“No, on his breast. He was bidding me adieu. 
Our first and our last kiss, those were his last words. 


LITTLE MAN 


21 


the unhappy man — and you killed him! Cov/ard! 
Murderer!” 

He turned to go. But paused, as Mathilde, kneel- 
ing beside the corpse, cried: 

“Ah, you wish to fly! You fear being found near 
your victim. You hope to escape justice.” 

“I do not fear it,” he replied. “It will absolve me.” 

“Absolve you! Ah, yes, that is true! That barbar- 
ous, monstrous law — which pardons the murderer, 
the assassin — which excuses the husband when he 
kills the lover.” 

An idea seemed to occur to her, and she added in a 
low voice: 

“But was he a lover 

“No one will doubt it!” 

“Do you think so.^^” 

She bent over Gontran’s form and muttered several 
words; they were almost like a vow to the dead. 
Then, after having pressed a kiss upon those livid 
lips, upon the icy brow, she rose with a bound, went 
out without turning to look back, descended the stair- 
case, crossed the hall, and left the house. It was 
now she who seemed in haste to fly. 

He left after her, followed her a moment with his 
eyes in the silent and deserted street of that winter 
evening. But soon he lost sight of her; she walked 
quickly towards Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, and 
from that side the street was darker, the mist thicker. 


Ill 


At half-past seven, as she had said, Gabrielle de 
Lange arrived at Rue Spontini in a carriage. Charles 
sprang from the seat which he had mounted in obe- 
dience to his master’s orders, opened the door of the 
coupe, then the door of the house, and drew back 
before Mile, de Lange. 

As she passed him, she uttered these words: 

“In spite of all that I have told you, you have 
again forgotten to close the window on the ground- 
floor. You will end by causing Gontran’s assassina- 
tion.” 

As she could not see him, he shrugged his shoulders, 
and murmured: 

“She has scarcely arrived, and she is scolding me 
already.” And, knave that he was occasionally, the 
little servant imitated Gabrielle de Lange’s gait and 
made a grimace behind her back. 

“Gontran,” she cried, crossing the hall, “it is I. 
Are you ready to go to dinner.? Will you comedown 
or shall I come up.? Why, he does not reply. Can 
he have gone out.? Go and see,” she added, turning 
to Charles who abruptly interrupted his grimace. 

He ascended the staircase in the same manner in 
which he had descended it three hours before, at a 
23 


LITTLE MAN 


23 


bound, crossed the landing on the first floor, softly 
raised the portiere after having shaken it — that was 
his mode of knocking at the door in the house in 
which there were no doors — and suddenly uttered a 
cry. 

‘^What is it?” asked Gabrielle in affright. 

Without awaiting a reply, she mounted the stair- 
case as quickly as she could. When she reached the 
landing, Charles stood before her pale and trembling: 

“What is it? Speak!” 

She hastened towards him in order to support him, 
for he seemed about to fall, and she heard him mur- 
mur: 

“He is dead! He is dead!” 

“Who is dead?” 

“My master.” 

Bravely she walked on, raised the drapery and en- 
tered. The sight she gazed upon certainly affected 
her less than it did Charles Leflot. Fair, slender, 
delicate, Cabrielle de Lange was, however, neither 
impressionable nor nervous. She had the heart of a 
man beneath an exterior very effeminate and charm- 
ing. 

Walking on tiptoe, avoiding the pools of blood, 
she advanced to the body stretched upon the floor, 
looked at it several seconds, stooped to touch brow 
and face, to listen to the heart, assured herself of 
death as a doctor would have done, and turning to 
the poor little servant, whose eyes were filled with 
large tears, she said to him: 


24 


LirTL£ MAN 


“Nothing can be done. He has been dead some 
time. We must notify the police at once.’^ 

“The police!’^ repeated Charles, not understanding 
clearly. 

“Yes, the commissioner of the quarter.’’ 

He rose mechanically to obey, walked in the direc- 
tion of the landing, and as he reached it, said: 

“Will you remain here alone 

“Why not? I am not afraid of the dead. Come, 
make haste. In order to go more quickly, take the 
carriage which brought us and place it at the dis- 
posal of the commissioner.” 

She thought of everything. Her presence of mind 
was perfect. Poor Charles went out with lowered 
head, his eyes obscured by tears, thinking only of one 
thing: “My master, who has been so kind to me, who 
has taken the place of a father, is dead, is dead !” 

When left alone, Gabrielle de Lange calmly looked 
around the salon, more curious than affected, to try 
to discover what had happened, what drama had been 
played. She had assured herself of his death like a 
veritable doctor. To learn the cause of that death, 
she constituted herself coroner. 

Suicide? That idea had already occurred to her, 
but she banished it. Why should Count de Platere 
kill himself, he who loved life so dearly and could 
enjoy it so thoroughly? Moreover, if he had com- 
mitted suicide, a weapon would be found near him, or 
at least in the salon. She looked around, in order to 


LITTLE MAN 


25 


be perfectly sure, she even raised the corpse and 
turned it over. That little fair woman was very 
strong! She found no weapon. 

A crime must have been perpetrated. An ordinary, 
common crime? Murder followed or preceded by theft? 
Why not ? In that deserted street, on that afternoon 
darker than night, in that house so insecure. 

No doubt of it. But it might also have been what 
is called a passionate crime. Count de Platere, in his 
adventurous life, fluttering from woman to woman, 
had made many enemies, athirst for vengeance. 

From reasoning, from analysis, Gabrielle de Lange 
passed to active research. 

If the count had been killed for the sake of plun- 
der, what had been taken from him? She hastened to 
the small bureau in which she had often seen him 
put his money. The key was in a lock of the drawer. 
She opened it, and at a glance discovered that it 
contained one thousand francs in bank-notes and 
louis d’or. M. de Platere’s pocket money. “Strange 
thieves,’^ said she, closing the drawer without dis- 
turbing anything. “They had only to stretch out their 
hands and to steal, — but they took nothing. But,’’ 
she continued, “the count must have had a large 
sum in the house. We were going away to-morrow 
morning, we were going to Monte-Carlo, which is 
an expensive place, and he certainly must have pro- 
vided himself with more money. Where is it ? If I do 
not find it, I shall come to this conclusion: murder 
and theft.” 


26 


LITTLE MAN 


She hunted again on all sides. “Nothing. But, on 
him.^^’^ she said to herself; “I should have begun 
there. 

In the fear of being surprised in the midst of that 
very natural search, but a search which might be 
misinterpreted, she raised and fastened with the cur- 
tain-bands the portiere which separated the boudoir 
from the landing. In that way, she could watch the 
staircase, which was in front of her, the hall, which 
was below, and if anyone entered could hear and see 
them from a distance. 

Those precautions taken, after having tucked up her 
skirt in order not to stain it, she again approached 
the corpse, stooped, and with her dainty but skillful 
fingers, she examined the pockets of the redingote 
worn by M. de Platere. 

Soon she drew from it a pocket-book, and without 
any hesitation proceeded to open it; three rolls of 
bank-notes for ten thousand francs each, a number 
of papers, bills, no doubt, and a letter — from a wo- 
man. There could be no mistake about that. 

She thought she had discovered the nature of the 
crime, its motive — murder, evidently dictated by pas- 
sion, by jealousy; a meeting, husband is informed of 
it, hastens thither and kills the lover. 

She had just reached that conclusion, when she 
heard the door open. 

What should she do with the pocket-book, which 
she still held in her hand.? There was not sufficient 


LITTLE MAN 


27 


time to put it back where she had found it. She 
might be seen from the foot of the stairs, and might 
be suspected of trying to rob a dead man. Did not 
those bank-notes belong to her.^ They were for her, 
for the journey of to-morrow, for her expenses at 
Monte-Carlo-- for her pleasure, her gaming— yes, for 
her beloved roulette. M. de Platere had drawn the 
thirty thousand francs. Should they not revert to 
the survivor.^ Who would get them.^ The count s 
wealthy relatives. What a pity ! She needed them, 
she, Gabrielle de Lange, whom the count s death 
would leave in dire distress. Those reflections made 
in an instant — for thought, at times, is more swift 
than lightning — she slipped the pocket-book into her 
pocket, one of those large pockets in the form of a 
sack, cut in the skirts of women. 


IV 


The commissioner of police of the sixteenth ward, 
after having dined, was about to enter his office, when 
Charles Leflot rushed in. 

When he comprehended his object — a not very 
easy matter, for the servant, very much agitated and 
frightened, explained incoherently — he bade an in- 
spector go in search of a doctor and take him to Rue 
Spontini, then he entered the carriage with his regis- 
trar, while Charles Leflot was so overcome that he 
was helped to a seat ! 

When he had established the crime, for all idea of 
suicide was immediately removed by the doctor, the 
commissioner informed the attorney of the Republic 
and the Prefecture, and then began a summary in- 
quiry. 

The first to be examined, Gabrielle de Lange, 
affirmed that she knew nothing of the drama which 
had just taken place; when she arrived at half-past 
seven with Charles Leflot, the body of the victim was 
already rigid. 

To the question: Do you suspect any one of this 
murder.? she responded: “No one. I do not know of 
one enemy M. de Platere had.’’ 

28 


LITTLE MAN 


29 


Then the magistrate, who, from professional duty, 
looked at her attentively, and was forced to acknowl- 
edge that she was extremely pretty, with a beauty 
very bewitching, asked himself and her if she were 
not involuntarily mixed up in the affair, if Count de 
Platere had not been killed by a jealous lover whom 
she had discarded. 

With an innocent air she rejected that idea; she 
could not discard lovers, for, living in strict retirement, 
she had never had one until the day on which she 
met M. de Platere. She was careful to say as little 
as possible, to prevent them from suspecting what 
she had discovered, what she knew. Indeed, if it were 
proven that the count had been killed by an outraged 
husband, all idea of theft would be set aside, and 
when it was proven that he had money in the house 
or on his person, they might suspect her for she was 
found alone there. So the abstraction of the pocket- 
book might bear the gravest consequences. 

The examination of Charles Leflot made Gabrielle 
uneasy. 

‘‘What is your name.^’’ the commissioner of the 
police asked the young boy. 

“Charles Leflot,’^ he replied tearfully. 

“You must aid the law in avenging your master.” 

“Oh, I should like to! I should like to!” said he, 
drawing himself up and raising his head. “My name 
is Charles Leflot. I am just fifteen.” 

“Tell what you know.” 


30 


LITTLE MAN 


“I know nothing.” 

“I will help you. The murderer entered during 
your absence, did he not ?” 

“Yes. Ah, if I had been here I would have screamed, 

I would have defended my master,” he replied with 
energy. 

He raised his arm and made a menacing gesture. 

“You closed the door of the house securely when 
you went out,” continued the commissioner; “how 
could anyone enter?” 

“Alas, through the window on the ground-floor 
which I left open. I thought of it when I was far 
away. I am the cause of my master’s death!” 

“Calm yourself, my boy. See here, whom do you 
suspect of having entered here?” 

“Ah! if I had suspected anyone, I should already 
have told you! The villain!” 

“Did M. de Platere receive many visitors?” 

“No; very few. It is so out-of-the-way here.” 

“Whom have you seen here of late? Think.” 

“I saw — I saw — Baron de Cloziers.” 

“Who is Baron de Cloziers?” 

“A friend of monsieur’s.” 

“What does he do?” 

“I believe he was in business.” 

“With your master?” 

“Oh, no, my master did not wish it.” 

“How do you know?” 

“I heard him say to the baron last week: ‘No, 


LITTLE MAN 


31 


decidedly no; notwithstanding my desire to be agree- 
able to you, I do not wish to enter into this affair.’” 

“And do you think the person of whom you speak 
came here yesterday.^” 

“I do not know.” 

“Did your master expect anyone?” 

“Yes, I think so.” 

“Why do you think so?” 

“Because he sent me out. It was his custom when 
he expected a caller.” 

“But you were here when he received Baron de 
Cloziers. You have just repeated the words ex- 
changed between them. ” 

“Oh! for such visitors he never sent me out.” 

“For what visitors then?” 

“When he expected — ” 

“Whom? Speak out!” 

“When he expected ladies.” 

“Ah! And you think to-day — ” 

“Yes. He was eager to have me go — and he 
seemed very contented. I knew it very well. When 
he had that air — ” 

“Well?” 

“He had an appointment with — with — a pretty 
woman.” 

“Ah,” gallantly said the commissioner, who from 
time to time watched Gabrielle de Lange slyly, “he 
expected madame.” 

“Oh, no, he would not have been so contented. 
He expected a new one.” 


32 


LITTLE MAN 


Those preliminary questions were interrupted; the 
inspector, commissioned by his chief to make inquires 
in the neighborhood, returned and wished to speak to 
his superior immediately, to whom he gave the fol- 
lowing report: 

A hired cabman had waited in the afternoon at the 
corner of Rue Spontini and Avenue Victor Hugo for 
a fare who never returned. He began to grow im- 
patient at waiting so long; he was not anxious about 
his money, for he knew his customer. 

To that information, another was supplemented 
which gave to the first great importance: a liquor- 
dealer, before whose shop the cab was stationed, 
had seen it arrive at six o’clock and mechanically 
watched the person who alighted from it. 

“You are bringing us a thief,’’ he said to the coach- 
man. “He has just entered Count de Platere’s through 
the window.” 

“Do not fear,” replied the cabman. “It is Baron de 
Cloziers, a member of the club which my employer 
furnishes with cabs.” 

“Why does he not enter by the door as every one 
else does.^” 

“A joke, no doubt. He is a friend of the family. I 
have brought him here before.” 

“A strange joke,” murmured the commissioner, 
casting a glance at the corpse lying in the adjoining 
room. 

Then, he reflected: after the first information re- 


LITTLF- MAN 


33 


ceived, it was the question of an ordinary murder not 
having robbery for its object; an assassin and a thief 
would not come at six o’clock in the afternoon in a 
carriage to the place of his operations. He would, 
too, take more precautions on entering the house; 
he would not expose himself to the view of the neigh- 
bors. Charles Leflot was right when he claimed that 
his master was awaiting a lady — Baroness de Cloziers, 
perhaps, whom her husband had followed and sur- 
prised. But was there a Baroness de Cloziers.^ He 
would find out. Before dismissing the inspector, he 
said to him: 

‘Hs that all.? You have nothing else to tell me.?’’ 

“Nothing, sir.” 

“Have you asked all the neighbors if they saw a 
lady — a stylish lady enter the hotel — this afternoon?” 

^ “Yes, sir, I asked, for the same idea occurred to 
me.” 

“Ah, is that so?” 

“I questioned the servants, the porters, the shop- 
keepers — there are very few. They saw no one.” 

“That is not very surprising; it has been dark since 
half-past four and there has been a fog besides! You 
need not go, I shall no doubt have need of you.” 

Desiring to ask Charles Leflot more questions, he 
signed to him to approach. But the second part of 
that examination, instead of enlightening him, made 
him more doubtful. 

Indeed, while the commissioner was consulting 


34 


LITTLE MAN 


with his inspector on the landing, Gabrielle de Lange, 
left an instant alone with Charles in the boudoir, had 
said to him very quickly, in a low voice: 

“Do you desire that your master’s death should 
not be avenged ?” 

“I? Why?” 

“You are trying to make the commissioner believe 
— and, indeed, you know nothing about it — that the 
count was expecting a woman.” 

“Well?” 

“That would naturally lead him to suppose that 
our poor Gontran has been killed by that woman’s 
husband.” 

“Well, so much the better! They will find the 
assassin at once and will put an end to him more 
quickly.” 

“That is where you are mistaken; ordinarily, the 
law does not punish the husbands who kill their 
wives’ lovers.” 

“What nonsense! My master’s murderer!” 

“Perhaps he will not even be sent to prison — while 
if there was a question of a theft they would at 
least imprison him.” 

She had said enough to impress the still unmatured 
mind of the young boy, who had only one thought, 
and that was to be avenged of the death of the one 
being he loved. 

“Then,” resumed the commissioner, “you believe, 
my boy, that M. de Platere sent you out because he 
expected a lady here?” 


LITTLE MAN 


35 


“Yes, sir, I thought so at first,” said Charles, in a 
very resolute manner that time. 

“Why, at first.? And what afterward.?” 

“Afterward I no longer believed it, because my 
master told me it was not true.” 

“Ah! did you then tell him your thoughts.?” 

“Yes, sir, he at times permitted me to joke with 
him. He was so kind to me!” 

“And he told you he did not expect a lady.?” 

Charles made a sign in the affirmative. 

“Whom did he expect.? 

“A gentleman.” 

“He told you so .? You are positive? It was no 
doubt to mislead you.” 

“O no! I could tell by his tone that he spoke se- 
riously.” He was not telling an untruth. He be- 
lieved what he said; the fear lest his beloved master 
might not be av.pnged now caused him to see things 
differently from what he had done. 

After a silence of several moments, the magistrate 
asked suddenly: “Where did your master keep his 
money .?” 

“There, in that little piece of furniture.” 

“Yes, I have opened it. But there were only small 
sums in that drawer. Where are the large sums?” 

“He had none here. He deposited them in the 
Lyonnais Bank and drew them out when he had need 
of them. I accompanied him several times.” 

“At the Lyonnais Bank, good,” replied the magis- 


36 


LITTLE MAN 


tate, signing to his registrar to make a note of that. 
“Do you think he went there to-day?” 

“This morning, yes, sir, it is possible — it is prob- 
able. He was going away to-morrow and he needed 
money.” 

“Then what can have become of it, according to 
you? I have searched everywhere— even in the 
clothes he still wears and I have found nothing.” 

“Naturally, sir.” 

“Why, naturally?” 

“Because if he was killed, it was to rob him. 

“Is that your idea?” 

“Surely!” 

It was his idea, his new idea inculcated by 
Gabrielle de Lange and to which he clung with the 
tenacity of youth. 

After another pause, the magistrate asked: 

“Is Baron de Cloziers, of whom you spoke to me, 
whom you have seen here several times, married? 

“I do not know. Why do you ask?” 

“Are yon interrogating me?" asked the commissioner 
smiling. 

“Your question surprised me. One might think 
you doubted me.” 

“Perhaps I do.” 

And looking Charles Leflot full in the face, he 
added; 

“It was he who came here this afternoon.” 

“He! Then it was he who killed my master? Oh, 
the knave! Oh, the wretch!” 


LITTLE MAN 


3; 


Then, pausing suddenly, as if talking to himself: 

Still — he had not a wicked air. Rather a kind 
face. But every one bore my master ill-will on 
account of his fortune, they thought him richer than 
he was. He often told me so. The baron came to 
talk to him about business. Monsieur refused him 
as he did the first time — and then,’^ concluded Charles, 
pointing to the corpse. 

The commissioner had allowed him to talk, know- 
ing that a simple supposition, scarcely formulated, 
oftentimes merges into grave proof. ' Then, the wit- 
ness’ words accorded so well with what he himself 
thought. The young servant’s story, the quarrel with 
regard to money, followed no doubt by a struggle, a 
murder and — ^robbery, were proof to the commis- 
sioner, who under the conditions in which the deed 
had been committed, refused to believe that it was 
premeditated. 

That inquiry, the affixing of seals on most of the 
articles of value in the house, took until eleven 
o’clock at night. Then the commissioner left, after 
having appointed the inspector guard until the mor- 
row. He had for companion the poor little servant, 
who had asked permission to watch his master, and 
who indeed watched him all night upon his knees, 
weeping and praying. 

As for Gabrielle de Lange, she excused herself for 
not remaining in the hotel; emotion, grief, she said, 
had crushed her, which the commissioner could very 


38 


LITTLE MAN 


well understand. Perhaps he should have divined 
that she was in haste to put in a safe place M. de 
Platere’s pocket-book. But the idea had not occurred 
to him for a moment of suspecting that pretty woman 
who seemed to mourn her lover with such sincerity 
and who had reached the hotel two hours after the 
murder. The majority of his colleagues would have 
done the same. 


V 


Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the com- 
missioner did not consider his task at an end. The 
commissioners of the different quarters of Paris fre- 
quently try to deserve the title of magistrate^ which 
is given them, by handing to the judge, whose nom- 
ination is often delayed by various causes, a thorough 
inquiry, of information easily acquired, which serves 
as a basis to work upon and is frequently of great 
value. 

So the commissioner of the sixteenth ward, on 
leaving Rue Spontini, turned his steps towards the 
dwelling of Baron de Cloziers, which had been pointed 
out to him by the cabman, not to see the baron, nor 
to arrest him — no warrant having yet been issued — 
but to obtain divers information. 

Replies to his questions proved to him that the 
baron was wedded to a lovely wife of unimpeacha- 
ble character, and that he lived happily with her. 

The baroness had gone out that day about four 
o’clock, but she had returned to dinner with one of 
her friend^ and did not go out again. 

With regard to the husband, contrary to his cus- 
tom, he did not dine with his wife, he had not even 
yet returned home. But during the evening he had 
39 


40 


LITTLE MAN 


been seen, evidently in great haste, ascending to his 
room, which he left again five minutes later. 

^‘Whither had he gone? Had he already fled?” the 
commissioner wondered anxiously. 

The thought occurred to him to repair to the 
baron’s club. He did not hope to find him there. 
But the servants — those employed at the gaming- 
tables, the croupiers — are usually well-posted with 
regard to the members of the club where they spend 
their lives in comparative idleness. 

To obtain admission to the salon of the club to 
which Baron de Cloziers belonged, was no difficult 
matter for the commissioner. The managers of such 
a club look upon it as politic to merit the good will 
of the administrators of the law, who could, in case 
of complaint, suppress the given license and close 
the doors of the house. 

So the magistrate, a very genial fellow, after hav- 
ing made himself known to the manager, and having 
asked him to mamtain secrecy, entered the salons, 
where the members present received him as a new 
colleague, elected at the last meeting. 

He passed through the reading and ecarte-rooms, 
silent and almost deserted at that hour of the night, 
then he entered the baccarat-room, which was filled 
with people, for the game was in great favor at that 
time in the club in question, which had its ups and 
downs like all clubs supported in that way. 

The bank was being bid for. 


LITTLE MAN 


41 


“A hundred louis/^ said one. 

“Two hundred,” said another. 

“Three hundred,” said the first speaker. 

The bank was about to be knocked down at three 
hundred louis, when a man of thirty years of age, 
with heightened color and a feverish manner, cried: 

“Five hundred louis!” 

“Ah!” said some one by the side of the commis- 
sioner, “Baron de Cloziers is coming out!” 

“What ails him?” said another. “Ordinarily he 
never ventures more than ten or fifteen louis.” 

“He must have fallen heir to a fortune to-day,” 
said a young member. 

“Or assassinated some one,” added a journalist 
with a smile. The commissioner, deeply interested 
by that conversation which he had overheard, did 
not lose sight of him who was designated as Baron 
de Cloziers. 

He was indeed the man described by Charles Leflot: 
a kindly face, an honest air. No trace of an assassin 
or of a thief. “But perhaps a little of the murderer,” 
said the commissioner to himself. A sanguine, nerv- 
ous man who might at times have violent paroxysms. 

Oh, yes, a very nervous man ! Seated in the center 
of the baccarat-table in the banker's large chair, he 
shuffled the cards with a sort of rage, as if already 
they were unfavorable to him. 

The cards shuffled, he had them cut, then dealt 
them quickly, sending them far away to the other 
end of the table. 


42 


LITTLE MAN 


But he was a good player; he lost several impor- 
tant tricks without flinching and won with the same 
indifference. He seemed insensible to loss or gain. 
What he seemed to desire, was to play incessantly, 
without rest. He grew impatient when the croupiers 
took too much time paying out or gathering up the 
money, and continued distributing the cards with a 
rapidity which confused the players. 

“One would think he was playing simply to divert 
his mind,” some one again said near the commissioner. 
That was what he had been thinking for a moment; 
Robert de Cloziers was playing to divert his mind; that 
is to say, to forget, as others, after a mistake or a 
crime, drink, get tipsy, sing, dance, give themselves up 
to debauchery. It is in wine-vaults, in low dancing- 
halls, in dens of all sorts that inspectors search for 
criminals of the lower order. It is in the fashionable 
restaurants and clubs where gaming is practiced that 
shelter is given to criminals of another class — and the 
commissioner congratulated himself on his penetra- 
tion. The information he had gathered was of the 
most valuable kind — the murder committed, Baron de 
Cloziers had not dared to return home, to dine with 
his family. He had walked through the streets of 
Paris, feverishly, madly, then he had repaired to his 
club, at the hour when baccarat was played, and, in 
the hope of calming his fever, of appeasing his re- 
morse, of not seeing his victim before his eyes, he 
played, played passionately. With what money did 


LITTLE MAN 


43 


he play? With his or with that of his victim? The 
examination would clear up that important point. It 
had already been shown, by his colleagues them- 
selves, that usually he was very careful and never 
risked much. 

His first bank of ten thousand francs, of doubling, 
tripling, broke. Then he replaced it by more — ten 
notes lor one thousand francs which he took from his 
pocket-book. They were not even in an envelope; 
but were fastened together with a pin. The com- 
missioner noted that detail, and, cautiously picked up 
the pin which M. de Cloziers threw on the floor after 
having opened the package and spread the notes on 
the table. 

That second bank, one instant on the point of 
breaking, became a mighty bank in spite of the Baron’s 
nerves, for he took the cards when he did not need 
them, and committed error after error. Those inter- 
ested declared it impossible to continue. The game 
flagged and finally died out, like all games which are 
so exciting at the commencement, and in which the 
combatants exhaust their strength quickly. , 

Then only did Baron de Cloziers rise and repair to 
the dining-room, where alone, in a corner, without 
addressing his colleagues, he ate a little and drank as 
nervously as he had played. 

Instead of returning home, he entered the reading- 
room and stretched himself upon the large divan. 

The inspector, who for some time had taken his 


44 


LITTLE MAN 


chief’s place with orders to watch all the baron’s 
actions, took a chair and waited. 


VI 


The judge appointed to hear the case, after having 
received, on the morning of the following day, the 
various reports from the commissioner, issued the 
order commonly called a warranty which is prescribed 
by article 40 of the Criminal Code. 

At the same time, as the necessity occurred to him 
of examining the wife of the prisoner without delay, 
he made out, in the afternoon, a simple summons 
against Baroness Robert de Cloziers. 

The prisoner was brought in at noon, and after the 
customary formalities, with that politeness character- 
istic of many of the judges, the latter said to him: 

“You know, no doubt, sir, of what matter I have to 
speak to you?’’ 

“Perfectly, sir,” replied Robert de Cloziers, appar- 
ently as composed and fully as urbane as the judge. 

The latter replied: 

“A person whom you knew, with whom even, I be- 
lieve, you were allied, Count Gontran de Platere, was 
killed yesterday in his hotel. Rue Spontini. I am 
telling you nothing new, am I?” 

“Nothing, sir, since it is I who killed the count.” 

“Ah! that is an avowal which relieves me of all 
preliminaries and permits me to ask you other ques- 
45 


46 LITTLE MAN 

tions immediately: Why did you kill M. de Platere? ’ 

“Because he was my wife’s lover.” 

“Are you certain of it.^” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“A denunciation, a correspondence, perhaps!”’ 

“An anonymous letter, yes, sir.” ■ 

“And that sufficed to lead you to commit a murder.^” 

“Ah, no, sir! That letter merely aroused my sus- 
picions, — and yesterday, tortured by jealousy, con- 
vinced that my wife, absent from home at an hour 
when she was usually there, had an appointment 
with the count — I took the revolver which I often 
carry with me at night — and repaired to Rue Spon- 
tini.” 

He paused to take breath and to overcome the 
emotion which possessed him, then, at a sign from 
the judge, he resumed: 

“Arrived at the house — as I was about to ring — I 
saw that the window on the ground-floor was open. 

I entered it — I heard voices — I ascended the stairs. 
I raised the portiere of the boudoir. My wife was in 
the count’s arms. They were embracing. In a frenzy, 
I seized my revolver, I fired and I killed him.” 

The judge waited a few seconds, then he said to 
the prisoner: 

“Is it absolutely correct, sir, that you found your 
wife with Count de Platere.^” 

“Yes, sir. What did you think, sir.?” 

“I believe what you have told me, sir. But the re- 


LITTLE MAN 


47 


ports which I have before me do not mention the 
presence of Mme. de Cloziers at the count’s. They 
state, on the contrary, that an inquiry was made in 
the vicinity, and that no one saw a woman either en- 
ter the house or leave it between the hours of five and 
six. It was for that reason, that I wondered if in 
your belief that M. de Platere was your wife’s lover, 
you did not simply go thither to provoke him. From 
that a quarrel, a struggle, a murder.” 

“No, sir, no; lam jealous, hasty, violent; but a 
simple anonymous letter would not have sufficed, I 
have already told you, to make me commit so violent 
an act. Unhappily for me — and for all — I surprised 
my wife in the count’s house, alone with him, in his 
arms — which, according to the law, is sufficient proof.” 

“Write that testimony word for word,” said the 
judge to his registrar. Then, turning to the prisoner: 

“After having been avenged upon the count, you 
no doubt pardoned his accomplice.?” 

“I did not pardon, but my anger disappeared sud- 
denly. Ah! one death, one murder was enough! I 
beg you to forgive my emotion, sir. I had resolved to 
be calm — but I have suffered so much since yester- 
day. I have suffered so much!” 

“I understand, sir — compose yourself!” 

The judge waited several seconds, then added 
gently; 

“Permit me to express my surprise, for others will 
be surprised, that your first thought after you had 


48 


LITTLE MAN 


awarded justice — for you no doubt thought you were 
right — was not to go to some commissariat to make 
your declaration and to give yourself up. That is 
the custom in such cases.” 

‘T thought of it, sir; but consider my emotion, my 
excitement — I had killed a man, I, who had never 
harmed anyone! And then — my wife, sir. One can- 
not tear a love like mine so suddenly from one’s heart. 
Only fancy, I never, never suspected her even of a 
flirtation. But yesterday that letter came to ruin my 
life. I told myself: To denounce myself is to denounce 
her at the same time, since she was the other’s ac- 
complice. What a sensation! What a scandal! She 
is lost, lost forever! Would it not be better to wait? 
If I were suspected, if I were arrested, I would tell 
the truth. If they arrest an innocent person, I will 
tell it quickly. But if they find no one, of what 
use to give myself up, to give her up, to say to all: 
She, whom you think respectable, had a lover!” 

He uttered those words with a strong accent of 
truthfulness, in a voice deeply moved, with tearful 
eyes. His nerves were strained. 

“Very well, sir, I accept your explanation with sev- 
eral exceptions.” 

Then, rising, he himself opened the door of a small 
room which communicated with his study and added: 

“Wait here. I will not delay calling you.” 

The door again closed, he rang for his office-boy 
to ask if Baroness de Cloziers had arrived, and on 


LITTLE MAN 


49 


receiving a reply in the affirmative he gave the order 
to admit her. 


VII 


Baroness de Cloziers, simply but faultlessly attired, 
somewhat pale, which in no way detracted from her 
exquisite beauty, took the chair which the judge 
pointed out to her, eagerly replied to various prelim- 
inary questions as to her name, her age, her birth- 
place, and before he examined her more seriously, 
said to him: 

^‘I confess, sir, that I am somewhat surprised to 
have been summoned here and to find myself here. 
But I am at the same time pleased, for my anxiety 
will probably cease; my husband, whose habits are 
very regular, has not been home since last night. 
Rumor says — I can scarcely believe it — that he has 
been arrested, that he was concerned in that sad 
affair on Rue Spontini. A misunderstanding, an error, 
which you no doubt have already discovered, or which 
you will discover after having examined me.’’ 

The judge, whom, ordinarily, nothing astonished, 
looked at her aghast. What composure! What as- 
surance! Her husband had surprised her the day be- 
fore in her guilt, had killed her lover before her eyes, 
and she did not seem aware of it! She spoke of a 
misunderstanding, an error! She asked to be relieved 
of her anxious fears ! The judge gazed at her a mo- 
50 


LITTLE MAN 


51 


ment, sought in vain to understand her, then said: 

“You spoke of the affair on Rue Spontini, madame. 
Do you not know all the details?’^ 

“I only know, sir, what the papers say: Count de 
Platere was assassinated yesterday in his hotel.’’ 

“Indeed.? But were you not one of his friends.?” 

“One of his friends.? That is somewhat exagger- 
ated. I have often met him this winter in society, 
and he has called upon me several times on my re- 
ception days.” 

“Indeed.? Did you not know him more intimately 
than that.^” 

“No, sir,” said she in a firm voice. 

However, she did not feel very safe; if M. de Pla- 
tere had not burned the letter in which she an- 
nounced her visit, and if the judge should present it to 
her! But he did not speak of it, and the composure, 
the presence of mind which she had affected in order 
to play her part well, was augmented. 

“I am surprised, madame,” resumed the judge, 
very softly, his eyes still fixed upon her, “that, know- 
ing Count de Platere so little, you should have gone 
to his house yesterday.” 

“I, go to M. de Platere’sl” 

“Yes, you, madame.” 

“Ah, indeed! Why, yesterday, I did not leave my 
house. Ah, yes, pardon — about half-past five or six 
o’clock, I called upon one of my friends in Rue 
Francois-Premier. ” 


52 


LITTLE MAN 


“You mean the friend who returned with you to 
dinner,” said the magistrate, turning over the leaves 
of the commissioner’s report. 

“Yes, sir. Ah! you know about it!” 

The judge hesitated, not knowing which to believe, 
husband or wife. As he was about to question her 
again, she said; 

“Who saw me at M. de Platere’s, sir?” 

He replied brusquely, looking in her face: 

“Your husband, madame.” 

“My husband? It is impossible!” 

“He affirms it, however!” 

“He affirms it? He dares to affirm it!” 

“That he found you at the count’s. In his arms. 

I am obliged to repeat his expressions word for word 
— and that in his anger he killed him.” 

“What! he killed M.de Platere? Ah, my God! But 
why does he accuse me? Ah, I understand — the un- 
happy man,” said she, addressing the judge suppli- 
catingly: “Sir, I beseech you, forget all that I am 
about to tell you. Yes, I was at M. de Platere’s and 
my husband was right to kill him. It was his right! 
Shall you now set him at liberty?” 

That comedy prepared, studied since the preceding 
day, had been admirably played, and the judge, one 
of the cleverest on the bench, notwithstanding his 
experience and his intelligence, was gradually affected 
by it. Certainly, his decision was not made, but he 
was inclined to think that the baroness was sincere 


LITTLE MAN 


53 


in denying her intimacy with M. de Platere, and 
that she acknowledged to the contrary to save her 
husband, since she had learned that he accused her 
of infidelity that he might not himself be accused of 
murder. 

‘‘Madame,^’ said the judge, resuming his cross-ex- 
amination, “after having denied your presence at the 
count's, you now affirm it. I admit and accept your 
last version. Only, reply to the questions I am 
about to put to you.’’ 

“I am at your service, sir.” 

“Did you go to Rue Spontini on foot or in a car- 
riage 

“In a carriage.” 

“In a hired or a private one.^” 

“A hired one.” 

“Did it stop at the door of the hotel 

“Yes, sir, at the door.” 

“Be careful, madame. They will find the cabman 
who drove to Rue Spontini in the afternoon, and if 
they find none who says he took you, — at what hour, 
if you please.^” 

She hesitated at first, then she replied: 

“It must have been seven o’clock.” 

“Oh! seven o’clock, you are at least two hours too 
late.” 

Feigning agitation, she stammered: 

“My God, sir, troubled, affected as I am, it is not 
surprising.” 


54 


Little man 


He interrupted her: 

“Please, madame, describe to me M. de Platere’s 
hotel.” 

“Very elegant — pictures — arms,” she said, thought- 
fully; then: “You ask me so many questions. A 
woman who for the first time keeps an appointment, 
does not notice all those things.” 

“Yes! But there are things which cannot escape 
one. In which room in the house did your husband 
find you with the count .J*” 

“In the bedroom,” said she, lowering her eyes. 

“The door was locked, of course.^” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Then how did he enter .^” 

“I do not know. I was so frightened.” 

“Try to remember. If you cannot, I will help you. 
He no doubt forced open the door.” 

“Yes, that was it.” 

“Which door.?” 

“That of the room in which we were.” 

“On the ground-floor.?” 

“Yes, sir, on the ground-floor.” 

“And then.?” 

“And then— it is terrible for me to tell it 1” 

“Terrible, no,” said the judge, “only difficult, for 
you have to invent all those details — they are not 
true.” ' 

“Not true!” 

“In all points. It is very nice, madame, to try to 


LITTLE MAN 


5S 


save your husband. But it is necessary to go about 
it properly. When one wishes to tell an untruth, one 
should post one’s self in order to give some exact de- 
tails which could render the story plausible.^’ 

She received that rebuke, her head bent in humil- 
ity. 

“Since your lie — Oh, I do not reproach you for it 
— has not succeeded,” continued the judge, “will you 
now tell me the truth It will perhaps be the best 
means of aiding your husband.” 

“Oh! if I were sure of it!” 

“I can make him understand it, and he will him- 
self, before you, renounce a system of impossible 
defense.” 

“Before me, did you say.^^ He is here then.^^” 

“Yes, near by. Is there any objection to meeting 
him.?” 

“On the contrary, sir, I could tell him that I be- 
lieved him innocent, and that I would not abandon 
him even were he guilty.” 

The judge turned towards the room where Robert 
de Cloziers was waiting, opened it and bade the baron 
enter. 


VIII 


The judge kept in the background, as much as he 
could, in order not to counteract the first effect of the 
meeting. He had, moreover, to enlighten himself, 
for he was very much perplexed; his* mind wavered 
between two convictions. While Baron de Cloziers 
stood motionlessly on the threshold, his wife, with 
clasped hands, rushed towards him. 

‘‘The judge is my witness, Robert,’’ she cried, “that 
I have just made every effort to save you! Your con- 
fession will injure you. Would to God you had not 
spoken! You affirm that you killed Count de Platere, 
because you surprised me in his hpuse, in his arms. I 
said what you did. Alas ! I did not have time to pre- 
pare my statement, I forgot certain details, and I 
was easily proven untruthful.” 

She paused panting, seeming to suffer cruelly at 
that painful confession, as if each word from her lips 
tore her heart. 

The baron did not speak. 

He looked at his wife blankly. 

Mathilde resumed, in a supplicating tone: 

“You see, my friend, it is therefore impossible to 
sustain such an allegation. In your interest, in mine, 
56 


LITTLE MAN 


57 


because our cause is a common one, abandon that 
system of defense. It is, unfortunately, clear as day, 
and the lack of understanding between us will cause 
too many contradictions.’^ 

Robert started. His voice mournfully repeated 
that phrase the sense of which escaped him: 

‘‘The lack of understanding between us — ” 

The young woman continued, growing persuasive, 
almost caressing: 

“I pray you, I conjure you, tell the whole truth. 
Monsieur has heard you already, he will again coun- 
sel you. That will be easy for you, Robert, for you 
are candor and honor personified, and I know very 
well that if you are unfortunately responsible for the 
death of a man, you cannot be guilty of a crime. See ! 
shall I help you? Oh! I see the entire scene! It was 
only an act of anger! You had business relations with 
the count. You went to his house — a discussion 
arose. You are very nervous, very excitable. Not- 
withstanding my prayers, you almost always carry a 
weapon, a dangerous weapon, upon you. You were in- 
sulted — provoked perhaps — and you were no longer 
master of yourself. You fired! Ah, it is very unfortu- 
nate — very, my friend, but — it is not a crime, and 
the law is disposed to be indulgent!” 

As she spoke, the woman approached her husband 
and took his hand. 

At that contact, the unhappy man recoiled. 

“Miserable woman!” he uttered in a hollow voice. 


58 


LITTLE MAN 


Into that exclamation he put all the misery of his 
broken heart, all the maledictions of his rebellious 
conduct. 

One instant Mme. de Cloziers turned away. 

She was not able to bear the reproach in the eyes 
of her husband, eyes filled with intense despair. 

But the feverish reaction of the accused was not of 
long duration. 

He again gave way to his dolorous^thoughts. 

“Sir,’’ said the judge, “it is impossible to show 
more tenderness and devotion for a husband than 
your wife has shown for you; Mme. de Cloziers is 
a model, and I am pleased to think that you, as she 
advises, will retract the system of defense, which' has 
against it the demerit of giving you the appearance 
of a calumniator and a coward.” 

The words affronted Robert. 

“A coward!” he roared, becoming in an instant 
the violent, unbridled being whom his wife had just 
described. 

The judge saw that the blow had told. 

He continued: 

“Yes, — for I call a man a coward, who, to palliate 
a fault, does not mind sullying the honor of a woman 
— above all, when that woman is his wife, and when, 
like Mme. de Cloziers, she has proved to be so virtu- 
ous that few are capable of imitating her.” 

Oh! what irony! 

Robert de Cloziers was no stoic, far from it. He 


LITTLE MAN 


59 


was simply an honorable man whom deceit had mad- 
dened, and in his frenzy he had killed her lover. 
The act .of justice accomplished, he had been the first 
to be terrified by it. And when, to the grief for his 
disappointed love, to the remorse for having killed a 
man, was joined the abominable suffering of feeling 
himself crushed by the testimony of his wife, that 
wife loved but too well, author and cause of all the 
trouble, he bowed beneath the judge’s severe ad- 
dress and found fio words with which to reply. 

How he now remembered the wild and dramatic 
gesture of Mathilde, calling the dead man to witness 
the vow of vengeance she made! For it was a vow of 
vengeance which bound her and which she was now 
fulfilling. To that lover of an hour, she sacrificed the 
husband who for years had been her companion, her 
devoted friend, the man who had lived, worked, 
struggled only for her, to assure more happiness at 
home, to surround her with joy, with triumphs for 
her beauty! 

He felt crushed by fate, vanquished by destiny. 

What the judge had said was true. 

In defending himself as he had done, in alleging 
passion as an excuse, in only telling the truth, he 
made himself still more odious, he incurred public 
prejudice, that brand of opinion, the most terrible of 
all, which bends a man beneath infamy often unmer- 
ited. 

Would it not be better to abandon one’s self to 


6o 


LITTLE MAN 


fate, to leave to Mathilde the success of her ven- 
geance, to fall saving a guilty woman? 

Occasionally the instinct of preservation, which 
assumes all forms, which struggles as well for honor 
as for life, suggested protestations to him. He tried 
to struggle without anger, without passion. Whatso- 
ever effort he made, he could read on the judge’s 
face that his conviction was formed. “ Madame, said 
the latter, addressing Mathilde de Cloziers, re- 
gret to say that your noble devotion has not produced 
upon your husband the impression I expected it 
would. I will not prolong the anguish of such a 
scene. You can therefore retire.” 

The young woman asked nothing better. 

She felt her strength weakening, she felt vaguely 
within her the first pang of her conscience. 

But she sustained her part to the end, that the 
dead might be avenged. 

“Robert,” said she, once more, “it is exceedingly 
painful for me to leave you thus, and if I had not the 
most perfect faith in monsieur’s kindness — ” 

He interrupted her in a voice which suppressed 
sobs rendered unsteady: 

“Do not add any more, madame. There is only 
one criminal here. Monsieur judges by appearances 
that the criminal is myself. You and I alone know 
that it is not so. You have done me all the harm 
you could possibly do me, for the cruelest of all is to 
know that I have been abandoned by you. Adieu! I 


LITTLE MAN 6 

have nothing more to say, sir, you have been suffi 
ciently enlightened.” 


IX 


That first depression did not last long. 

When one night had passed, Robert de Cloziers 
felt more disposed to dispute his life with the fate 
which was against him. . 

Truth rebelled against the threat of death sus- 
pended over his head by the accusation of murder, 
But the unfortunate man saw clearly, at that hour, 
that the first statement made by him, bound him, 
that he would not be able to draw back, to contra- 
dict his statement. 

His words were registered. 

What he had said was the truth. To substitute 
another story, he would have to invent it and conse- 
quently to lie. But a lie Was not like the truth. 
One grew confused, one contradicted one’s self. Even 
did he wish to repair the damage caused to Mathilde’s 
reputation, he could no longer do so. The first 
statement had been made. 

That was not all. 

New proofs, more cruel still, were reserved for the 
poor man. He was aware of that after his second 
examination. Up to that time, Robert de Cloziers 
did not think he was suspected of anything but an 
act of anger. 


62 


LITTLE MAN 


63 


Alas! that illusion could not hold good against the 
facts, and the terrible truth broke upon the baron 
suddenly. 

When left again alone with the judge, he could at 
a glance perceive that the attitude and face of the 
latter had entirely changed. 

It was graver than the day before, but a veil of 
merciless severity overspread his naturally kind feat- 
ures. 

M. Pauly-Reverdiere, judge, was then forty years 
old. He was one of the youngest magistrates in the 
district, and had only exercised the functions with 
which he was invested for five years. 

But everyone praised his exquisite politeness, the 
loyalty of his character, the impartiality of his judg- 
ment, the sagacity of his diagnostic mind. 

With the same courtesy as on the preceding day, 
M. Pauly-Reverdiere signed to the baron to seat him- 
self before him. Calmer, more self-possessed, Robert 
could reply with more precision. 

“Sir,’^ said the judge, “do you adhere to the dec- 
laration made by you yesterday, and explain, as an 
act of anger, the murder of Count de Platere?’’ 

Robert bowed. 

“That declaration being an expression of the truth, 
I can do nothing but maintain it.’’ 

The judge seemed to hesitate. 

Then he resumed: 

“Yesterday that declaration seemed to me probable, 


64 


LITTLE MAN 


and I will do you the justice to say that your entire 
manner helped to corroborate your words. But Mme. 
de Clozier’s deposition has considerably modified my 
sentiments, and I must add that the inquiry of which 
I have the reports, are the exact opposite of your 
assertions. It is therefore time, sir, for you to re- 
tract them, and I beseech you, for the last time, to 
confess the truth. 

The baron simply replied: 

‘‘I cannot retract anything I have already said to 
you, sir, and whatever may be the result of your in- 
quiry, by means of what infamy Mme. de Cloziers 
has aggravated her first crime, I do not doubt for a 
moment that the truth will conquer in my favor. 
I made a great mistake in killing a man ; it is enough 
to make me remorseful forever, though the law ab- 
solves me from all guilt. 

“Very well, sir; it would be wrong for me to urge 
you to retract facts explained by you, and which 
might stand if those facts were not absolutely contra- 
dicted by information from others. On the other 
hand, my duty as magistrate — at least, so I under- 
stand it — forces me not to seek the proof of crimes, 
but that of innocence. You are not yet a prisoner. 
Help me, I pray you, to establish your innocence.” 
It would have been impossible to employ language at, 
once more noble and more kind. 

Robert replied deferentially: 

“Question me, sir. I will satisfy your wishes.” 


LITTLE MAN 


6S 


“M. de Cloziers,” said he, ^Mid you not tell me 
yesterday that your suspicions with regard to your 
wife’s conduct had been suddenly aroused by the 
receipt of an anonymous letter?’’ 

“I said so, indeed, sir.” 

“You have that letter in your pocket. Show it to 
me.” 

Robert de Cloziers turned pale. 

He remembered that the letter without any signa- 
ture denounced Mathilde as the mistress of Count de 
Platere; he had destroyed it in an access of incre- 
dulity and of disgust. 

His voice trembled as he replied: 

“That letter, sir, in my indignation I burned.” 

The judge’s eyes were fastened upon him. 

The baron felt ill at ease beneath that glance. 
The magistrate shrugged his shoulders, as if to say: 

“Parbleu! I knew that.” 

M. Pauly-Reverdiere, however, said: 

“You told me too, sir, that you had no business re- 
lations with Count de Platere.” 

“I told you so, and tell you so again, sir. It was 
rather he who, in order to have a pretext for intro- 
ducing himself into my house, — to approach — my 
— my wife — I see it now — asked me to aid him with 
my advice in investing some money.” 

“But,” interrupted the magistrate, “Charles Leflot, 
M. de Platere’s servant, affirmed that you had a very 
animated conversation with his master, which ended 


66 


LITTLE MAN 


with these words uttered by the count: ‘No, sir, 
decidedly not. I cannot enter into the combination 
you propose to me. 

“The boy spoke the truth, in substance at least, for 
there was no question of any ‘combination. ’ One 
day, it was about a fortnight ago, I went to Count de 
Platere’s in order to advise him to buy some stock 
which I thought good. He did not agree with me, 
and he said so, in terms quite different from those 
repeated by his servant.” 

“I did not perhaps repeat exactly the boy’s words, 
but we have them in the commissioner’s report. 
Registrar, will yo.u read Charles Leflot’s testimo- 
ny.?” 

The registrar said imperturbably, turning to the 
report: “Here are the witness’ words verbatim: ‘I 

heard him (Count de Platere) say to the baron last 
week: ‘No, decidedly not; not withstanding my desire 
to accommodate you, I do not care to enter into that 
affair.’” 

The judge resumed, fixing his eyes upon Robert: 

“You see, sir, it is not a ‘combination,’ as I incor- 
rectly said, but an ‘affair.’ Still an ‘affair’ calls 
forth preambles, conversations, frequent interviews, 
what are called ‘relations.’” 

Robert was startled. 

He was conscious of imminent peril. He did not 
know that those examinations constituted nearly all 
the proceedings. 


LITTLE MAN 


67 


His terrible adversary did not lose sight of it. 

‘‘You spoke of a ‘fortnight/ just now. The little 
servant said ‘last week. 

“One week or two, what is the difference.?” said 
the baron, impatiently. “Of v/hat use is such care 
in the precision of*each word.?” 

Master as he was of himself, M. Pauly-Reverdiere 
did not lose a word of that speech. 

“Why exercise such care, sir, is soon said. A 
fortnight ago, M.de Platere had not drawn any money, 
while last week he placed in the Lyonnais Bank a 
number of bonds with the order to sell them for 3,000 
francs. Do you begin to understand, M. de Cloziers .?-” 

“Not the least in the world, sir,” replied the baron, 
whose large, frank eyes were proof of his sincerity. 

“Listen, then, and I will make the effort more 
easy. On the day of M. de Platere’s death, at three 
o'clock in the afternoon, the cashier of the Lyonnais 
Bank counted out to him thirty thousand francs in 
three packages of notes, fastened with a pin, and 
moreover returned to him three of his bonds which 
it was not necessary to sell in order to get the sum 
required. This time, do you grasp the sense of my 
words.?” 

“Not any more clearly,” said Robert, with the 
same sincerity. 

Generally after enunciations of that kind, a judge 
strikes a great blow. 

M. Pauly-Reverdiere did not refrain from doing so. 


68 


LITTLE MAN 


Fixing his eyes upon those of the prisoner, he ut- 
tered this question: 

“That money, those bonds were not to be found on 
the body, nor in the house. M. de Cloziers, what 
did you do with them?’^ 

It is impossible to describe the change which took 
place suddenly in the face and manner of the baron. 

His face turned alternately white and red, his hands 
trembled feverishly. Drawing himself up suddenly, 
his eyes fixed, his breast heaving, he exclaimed, in a 
voice which emotion rendered husky: 

“Why — why do you say that — do you take me for 
— for a thief!” 

He sank back exhausted in his chair, and for several 
seconds, with dilated pupils, eyeballs ready to start 
from their sockets, it seemed as if he were on the 
verge of madness. 

M. Pauly-Reverdiere v/as fearful lest he had gone 
too far. He resumed more gently: 

“Calm yourself, sir, and reply with composure. I 
do not accuse you; I repeat, I rely upon your own 
words. But appearances exist — aggravating ones — 
and whatever they may be, it is necessary to dissipate 
them, in order to succeed in establishing your inno- 
cence.” 

The blow was struck. To the- first violence of the 
shock succeeded a sort of dejection much greater than 
that caused by Mme. de Cloziers’ testimony. He no 
longer defended himself. Everything, his gestures, his 


LITTLE MAN 69 

attitude, indicated that despair had done the work'and 
had destroyed his power of resistance. 

Meanwhile, the judge was unable to suppress a 
feeling of profound pity for that man in whose ad- 
venture he suspected the intervention of he knew 
not what mysterious and terrible fatality. He tried 
by various means to relieve that great dejection. 

“See, see he exclaimed, kindly. “Do not despair ! 
We are here to serve the truth, I as well as you, but 
I cannot do so without your aid, sir. Here, for ex- 
ample, is a strange coincidence — they cannot find 
the money paid to. M. de Platere by the Lyonnais 
Bank. M. de Platere is murdered and robbed. 
A few hours after the deed, the man who voluntarily 
acknowledges himself M. de Platere’s murderer, is 
seen at the club at an hour when he rarely visits it. 
He seems agitated, feverish; still farther, he who 
never plays, or at least only in the most prudent 
manner, on that evening plays recklessly. He risks 
such sums that those about him make the remark 
that he seems to be playing to divert his mind. You 
must confess that is sufficient to arouse suspicion, M. 
de Cloziers.’’ 

Robert mournfully bowed his head. 

“I know it,’^ he murmured. 

“Well,’’ continued the judge, “I do not rely upon 
those terrible circumstances. I will admit that they 
are the result of some accident, and I offer you my 
aid in disproving it. Answer truthfully: Where did 


70 


LITTLE MAN 


you get the twenty thousand francs you risked at 
the club? Did you have that sum in reserve? Sev- 
eral witnesses say that at the time you were embar- 
rassed, and that you tried, unsuccessfully, several days 
before, to negotiate a loan/^ 

The baron was paler than ever. 

‘^Alas, sir,” he replied, “I am obliged, in order to 
prevent myself from being accused of crime, to con- 
fess that I have been imprudent; that money was not 
mine, in the strict sense of the word. One of my 
intimate friends, M. Lucien Reval, the well-known 
explorer of Central Africa, last year, when about to 
enter upon a new expedition, asked me to take care 
of that sum for him until his return.” 

^‘What!” said the judge. ‘‘Did-not your friend, who 
must intend to be absent several years, prefer to 
leave his money in some bank? He would not thus 
lose a large amount of interest.” 

“That is true, but if Reval needed his money during 
his long voyage, could the bank of which you speak 
undertake to send it to him to some almost unknown 
town in Africa? Moreover, you know, gold and bank- 
notes are, most of the time, of no use there; the ex- 
plorer rather needs ammunition, objects of exchange, 
divers kinds of merchandise. It was agreed upon 
between Reval and me that I should make the pur- 
chases and send him the articles.” 

The magistrate smiled skeptically. 

“You would have been unable to do so if you had 
lost those twenty thousand francs at baccarat.” 


LITTLE MAN 


71 


“Alas!” sighed the baron. “That is what troubles 
me. Certainly I have committed more than one 
imprudence. But I was far from being dishonest. 
If I had lost, Reval would have pardoned me so much 
the more easily, for he had authorized me to use that 
money held in trust if I found it necessary.” 

^ “And so with that general authority, you thought 
you would risk it in the way you did.^^” 

Robert sadly inclined his head. 

“Sir,” he replied, “I have already told you that is 
what I regret. What can I add in my defense, if not 
that there are times in life when one tries, at any 
price, to divert one’s mind, to escape one’s self, to 
forget — Only think! — In the same day, to learn of the 
infidelity of an adored wife, — and to kill a man! For 
a long time I madly walked through the streets of 
Paris. Then I hastily entered my room. I took that 
money which Reval would have told me to take in a 
situation like mine, and — no longer conscious of what 
I was doing — I sought the gaming-table.” 

The judge passed his hand over his eyes and his 
brow. That brow was anxious. 

He said slowly, as if regretfully: 

“Unfortunately, nothing of all that can be proven; 
M. Reval at this time is exploring Africa. No one, 
not even yourself, could find him, and his testimony, 
which is required, you can certainly not obtain.” 

“Alas!” sighed poor Robert, “that is only too true. 
But, some day, when you will have condemned me. 


72 


LITTLE MAN 


he will bear testimony in my favor — if he does not 
die there !” 

“Yes, that may be,” said the judge, who, unfort- 
unately, finding too many impossibilities in that 
story, did not believe it and called it romancing. 

He forgot that romancing often is like the truth. 


X 


Thus all combined to overwhelm the unhappy 
man, guilty only of a transport of jealousy, of a passion 
which was excusable, and which even the law pro- 
vided against and excused. 

Three persons, by a word, could have saved him; 
or, at least, could have rendered less grave, less seri- 
ous, the charges made against him. 

First, there was Charles Leflot. 

If P’tit Homme, nicknamed thus by the people of 
the neighborhood, who adopted a sobriquet which 
Mile, de Lange had bestowed upon the boy, if P’tit 
Homme had told the judge what he told the com- 
missioner: that his master was expecting a lady, and 
that his meeting was one of love and not of business; 
if he had spoken of the letter received by Count de 
Platere on returning home, and of his delight on read- 
ing it, he would have at a single blow given to Robert's 
defense the semblance of truthfulness which it lacked. 

But the boy believed that if he disclosed those 
facts his master's assassin would go unpunished, 
and without lying, since he was not questioned, he 
maintained silence. Secondly, there was Gabrielle 
de Lange. 

Gabrielle, probably, would not have committed 
73 


74 


LITTLE MAN 


the deed, had she ‘ foreseen the consequences. Not- 
withstanding her lack of heart, her very elastic con- 
science, or rather, the absence of it, the thought that 
a man would be sent to jail, to the scaffold perhaps, 
on her account, troubled her at times. It was not 
remorse in the strict sense of the word, for the woman 
could only imperfectly distinguish between good 
and evil, but it was something similar to it. If it 
had been possible for her to turn back, to replace the 
dead count’s pocket-book so skillfully taken away, 
certainly in one of those troublous hours when care 
oppressed her, she would have done that act of rep- 
aration. 

But how could she retract.? 

How could she avow that she had lied, that she 
had robbed a corpse.? 

And then, the thirty thousand francs and the three 
shares, found in the pocket-book, were a fortune 
to her, for she hoped to increase them tenfold, a 
hundredfold perhaps, when, the trial over, the mat- 
ter forgotten, she could go without danger to Monte 
Carlo, to play at the roulette-table. 

She had dreamed that those notes, several of which 
were blood-stained, would bring her good luck, if she 
placed them on the red. 

Lastly, there was Baroness de Cloziers. 

She was persistent in her thirst for vengeance, and 
sincerely believed she was doing right. 

From her point of view, not only was Count de 


LITTLE MAN 


75 


Platere right in vying with Baron de Cloziers for 
her love, but had also acted nobly with regard to it — 
consenting to leave Paris, to fly, in order to respect his 
rival’s domestic peace, in order that she, Mathilde, 
might have nothing to fear, that her mind might be 
at rest. Had he not intended leaving the following 
day, she would not have gone to his house to bid him 
a romantic adieu, and — he would still be alive. It 
was certainly slight punishment for his murderer to 
receive a few years in prison ! 

As is often the case in such adventures, Mathilde 
had become over-excited since the death of that be- 
loved man. And even if she had maintained her com- 
posure, she would have been unable to ask herself a 
formidable question: Did she really love that man? 

The bloody drama had occurred just in the nick of 
time. Having only partially sinned, she did not know 
the repentance which follows the act. She was igno- 
rant of the anguish, the satiety, the nameless disgust, 
those memories of shame which are graven in the 
depths of the human soul, and poison life. 

Platere had not fallen in her esteem'. She invested 
him with all the virtues of which he had never 
dreamed, and lauded him in order to*justify herself, 
to render her vengeance more plausible in her own 
eyes, and, by explaining it, to stifle the remorse 
which, at times, she already felt stirring within her 
and gnawing at her heart. 

Ah! how skillfully had she managed that revenge, 
and how favorable events had been! 


76 


LITTLE MAN 


That letter in which Mathilde had announced her 
visit to the count had disappeared ! No one to con- 
firm her arrival in Rue Spontini, her departure from 
M. de Platere's hotel! 

Then, that alibi so cleverly managed. On leaving 
the hotel resolved to affirm that she had never entered 
there the baroness had taken a carriage and driven to 
Rue Francois-Premier, to the house of an intimate 
friend to whom she could confide all, of whom she 
could ask anything. 

She had never had occasion to make a confidante 
of her. Her friend was dozing by the fire. On Ma- 
thilde’s entrance, she awoke with a yawn, and said: 

‘‘Good day, my dear; it was kind of you to come. 
What is the exact time.^ I have sent my watch to be 
cleaned and my clock has stopped.^’ 

“It is half-past five,’^ replied the baroness, who 
cheated one hour, the hour spent with Count de Pla- 
tere. 

Later on, when the two women went out together, 
Mathilde profited by the few minutes she was left 
alone to slightly move the hand of the clock and to 
put it upon the figure where it really belonged. 

Many alibis are proven in that manner, or in a 
manner just as simple. 

All had therefore been prepared, or rather all 
agreed fatally — time, events, presumptions, testimo- 
nials, proofs — to condemn Baron de Cloziers. 


XI 


Debates at the Court of Assizes offer little of in- 
terest to lovers of celebrated cases. However, the 
public voice had borne to the four winds of heaven 
the announcement of that famous trial. All the 
biases and the curious, frail, delicate and nervous 
women who were interested in the details of that 
lugubrious case, were greatly disappointed by the 
rapidity of the issue, the little energy employed by 
the accused. 

And yet one might have said that the drama, in- 
stead of ending, was only commencing. 

For, in the presence of the judges, Baron de 
Cloziers revoked — it was thus that he took his ven- 
geance — his declaration that he had surprised his 
wife at Count de Platere’s. 

He confined himself to saying, determining the 
judge’s first suppositions: 

“I thought I was deceived. I lost my self-posses- 
sion. I hastened to the count, and — I killed him. I 
regret that act of violence so much the more because 
neither my wife nor M. de Platere had anything to 
reproach themselves with. I am sure of it to-day.’^ 
Here the president asked with severity: 

“Did you then lie at the examination For there 
77 


LITTLE MAN 


f8 

you affirmed the contrary. You even stated the facts 
precisely: your entrance through the open window, 
your surprise and your grief at the sight of your wife 
in the arms of her lover. It was all uttered by you in 
a tone of excitement, it is true, but without anyone 
urging you, without even M. Pauly-Reverdiere incit- 
ing you to make such avowals. It is necessary that 
the jury be informed sufficiently in order that they 
can distinguish between the romance of yesterday and 
the allegation of the following day.” 

“Sir,” replied the accused, “I have given every one 
the right to condemn me. You insist on a question 
which is particularly painful to me, and you oblige 
me to contradict myself. Say, then, that I cheated 
justice with or without intention, it matters not. The 
jury and the court have only before them a murderer 
whose fate they are called upon to pronounce.” 

There was in thd audience a murmur of disapproba- 
tion. The manner of the accused, far from gaining 
him the sympathy of the people, rendered him anti- 
pathetic. 

“So, de Cloziers,” continued the president, “you 
admit that the first reasons given by you existed only 
in your imagination. The murmur which you have 
just heard proves to you that opinion herself has 
already judged you and that what she condemns most 
of all in you, is the first calumnious imputation, in a 
cowardly manner cast by you upon the reputation of 
a dead man and upon the honor of your own wife.” 


LITTLE MAN 


79 


The baron replied with heart-rending sadness: 

“I might say to you, sir, that I did not expect to 
find in your words the echo of that public opinion 
which has no voice in the matter. I prefer to avow 
that, at this moment, the judgment of that opinion 
is of little moment to a man who knows he is con- 
demned and who in that quality will not have the 
right to appeal from the sentence of a few to the sen- 
tence of all.” 

It was a lecture which the prisoner, from his seat 
of infamy, gave to the president of the Assizes. 

The accusation could not tolerate such a precedent. 

“You must know,” exclaimed the attorney-general 
angrily, “that if the jury adheres to the second ver- 
sion which you gave of your crime, and if they do not 
find it more plausible, more acceptable than your ex- 
planation at the examination — ” 

“What do you mean.?” exclaimed Robert, who was 
paler than usual. 

“I mean,” harshly replied the magistrate, “that be- 
tween your second story explaining the death of M. 
de Platere by a murder due to a sort of sudden frenzy, 
and the report of the commissioner, as well as the 
entire examination, giving to that death the name of 
assassination, followed by robbery, the jury might 
choose those from preference.” 

“So,” exclaimed Robert, his face suddenly aflame, 
“that deplorable system has prevailed! But I will 
only say one thing on the subject to the jury, as to 


8o 


LITTLE MAN 


yourself, sir. Look at me, and see if I have the ap- 
pearance of a thief. I add that before the judge I 
refuted that insinuation of theft. Allow me the nec- 
essary delays, give my absent friend the time to re- 
turn from Africa to confirm the truth of my state- 
ments.’’ 

Alas! What he asked was impossible! However, 
that cry of an innocent soul moved the auditors and 
troubled the jurors themselves. 

But they did not accept the new version of the ac- 
cused, and only saw in that affair a murder, followed 
by theft. 

The accused’s counsel, thanks to an eloquent ad- 
dress, succeeded in making them admit that it was 
not premeditated. He thus obtained for his client 
the benefit of extenuating circumstances. 

Robert de Cloziers was condemned, on the 5th of 
January, 188 — , to five years of penal servitude. 


Look at me and see if I have the appearance of a thief 


o 

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PART II 


1 

Baroness de Cloziers was not present at the de- 
bate of the Court of Assizes. The president excused 
her from giving testimony m public, and contented 
himself with reading her deposition. 

Therefore it was the day after the trial, which had 
occupied two days, that she read the details in the 
“Gazette des Tribunaux.” 

Mathilde had not finished reading when she was 
upset by it. 

One thing — a terrible discovery for her — struck 
her. Was she not mistaken? Was it possible? It had 
been proven, without contradiction, that Gabrielle 
de Lange had been for several years Count de Pla- 
tere’s mistress. It was proven that on the following 
day even he was to go on a journey with her. With 
her! With that creature! But the great love which 
he had sworn for her, Mathilde de Cloziers ! And 
that sacrifice with which she had been so pleased — 
to leave Paris, to go far away, and alone! 

The paper fell from her hands. 

Panting, distracted, she feverishly paced her room, 
81 


82 


LITTLE MAN 


her head on fire, her eyes dimmed, haunted by mad- 
ness. 

What was taking place within her.^ She had never 
experienced anything like it. * Terrible sadness to 
her heart, and the blood, mounting to her brain, 
threatened to burst it. Her vanity, her imagination 
was wounded. Her pride gave way lamentably, and 
with bitter anguish, the thought of her abominable 
vengeance possessed her. 

She paused, she wrung her hands. Her eyes, dazzled 
by the light, were turned upon the carpet and there 
saw the newspaper. She stooped and mechanically 
picked it up. 

Poor woman ! It was not the light of day which 
hurt her sight; it was the light of truth which dazzled 
her and disclosed to her in all its horror the crime of 
which she was guilty. Her thoughts were confused. 

She read the paper without understanding it. 

Suddenly intelligence returned to her; she composed 
herself, but with the eager desire to know better, to 
know more, to cause the terrible wound just made in 
her heart to bleed. And the printed sheet fully com- 
pleted her suffering. 

Love — for her, Mathilde — the love of Gontran de 
Platere! Oh! the horrible raillery! Love! It was for 
the other he felt it. A sacrifice! “To go to the land 
of the sun, to the shores of azure, called also the 
shores of gold, in the radiance of the roulette, in 
company with the most charming and piquant 


LITTLE MAN 


83 


blonde.” That was the way in which the grave 
‘‘Gazette des Tribunaux” described Gabrielle de 
Lange ! 

Then followed the details of the trial, the lawyer’s 
words, interrupted by the laughter of the audience, 
laughter which the president was unable to repress. 
And among others, that phrase which was impressed 
in characters of fire on Mathilde’s mind. 

The attorney-general said: 

“You see, gentlemen of the jury, the accused has 
retracted the first version, as cowardly as it is ridic- 
ulous. He himself saw how odious it was. What in- 
deed could be plausible in that accusation of infidelity 
against a woman, who, for lack of any other preserv- 
ative, had the good taste not to partake of and to 
refuse to play the part of condiment or side-dish in a 
menu of love so well prepared by Count de Platere?” 

That rhetoric, in such bad taste, had, said the 
“Gazette,” called forth “prolonged laughter.” 

Then a reaction, sudden, violent, took place in the 
mind and heart of Mathilde de Cloziers. 

Up to that time, she had only been sensible of the 
wound to her pride. Now, it was remorse — at first 
hopeless — which possessed her. 

So it was that man who mocked at her — who, no 
doubt, laughed at her mad infatuation in the arms of 
another — it was that liar, that perjurer, whom she 
had taken such pains to avenge! 

It was for him she had just caused her husband’s 
condemnation! 


84 


LITTLE MAN 


Her husband! What reproaches rose against him 
now? What faults had he committed in comparison 
with hers? None! She completely absolved him! 

In proportion as her eyes were opened, the unhap- 
py woman became more terrified and wretched. 

At that time she was horrified at her crime. Tears 
trickled down her cheeks, for, above all else, there 
rose before her memories of her marriage, of the 
ardent and constant devotion shown her by Robert. 
She began to love her husband again, or, rather, she 
had never ceased loving him. 

Her husband! She now saw that he was right in 
killing the count. He had saved her! 

Indeed, what a terrible future, what eternal dis- 
grace would have been hers, had she finally yielded 
and become the mistress of that knave, that coward ! 
Her husband! The Robert once so dearly loved — 
who still loved her! What had she done to him? 

What had she done to him? Had she not just read 
it in the abominable journal whose printed lines 
danced before her troubled eyes, while her lips uttered 
the phrases which rang in her ears! 

Her husband! They had sentenced him on her 
testimony, for assassination followed by theft. 

Here the baroness rose! That, oh, that was too 
much ! That was infamous ! That she could not stand ! 
She did not formulate the infamous accusation! 

The word theft stared her in the face. 

He, Robert, a thief! He, so proud, so generous, so 


LiTTLE MAN 


85 


refined! And no one would believe him when he 
told the truth, when he explained that the money 
risked at the club, he was keeping for a friend. Cer- 
tainly, she believed it, although she had known noth- 
ing of the trust made by M. Revall But she knew 
her husband; she knew that he would die rather 
than sully his honor! 

Oh! if she could have suspected that her venge- 
ance would go so far, that it would bear such terrible 
consequences! She had desired that he be accused of 
an act of violence and taken to prison. But the 
galleys, theft! Oh, no, no! Not that! Infamous! It 
was infamous! 

It was she who had done all the harm ! She who 
had put faith in the guilty love of a Lovelace ! She 
who had driven her husband to commit murder, she 
who had made of him a ruined man, an assassin and 
a thief in the eyes of the world. 

And how had he been avenged 

Instead of insisting that she appear in the Court of 
Assizes to bear testimony, instead of saying: “You 
lie! You know that you lie, that you are bearing false 
witness!’’ what did he do.^ 

He declared, or rather allowed his confession to be 
interpreted thus: “It was I who lied; she was not at 
Count de Platere’s; I unjustly suspected them both.” 

This was what he did ! He had drained the chalice 
to the very dregs; he had accepted, not only an un- 
just sentence which could not decrease his innocence. 


86 


LITTLE MAN 


strong in the testimony of his conscience, but also 
the terrible situation of being held to be a coward, a 
vile insulter of woman, retracting at the last hour. 

What generosity, what nobility in the face of such 
ignominy! And how he loved her! 

Mathilde was possessed by a fever, a fever to know 
all, not to spare herself one detail, one pang. 

She took up the paper again. She devoured it. 
She read, she re-read it. Then, when she knew by 
heart that “Gazette des Tribunaux,’^ she wanted 
others which renewed her despair, which revived 
her sorrow. 

All that and the following day, Mathilde de Clo- 
ziers spent reading the journals. 

That was not all. 

She had taken down the names of various witnesses 
called. She selected a number and sought those 
whom she thought the most likely to give her infor- 
mation. In short, she by divers channels obtained 
all the details which could enlighten her. And yet 
she neglected the two principal sources of informa- 
tion. She could not compromise herself with Ga- 
brielle de Lange, and she considered Charles Leflot 
of no importance. 

From that day .her mind was made up. 

She would free her husband, she would re-establish 
his innocence, at no matter what price, and give him 
her life in expiation of the injury she had done him. 

And in order to carry out that generous resolution, 


LITTLE MAN 


87 

she 


she would employ more skill and energy than 
had employed in wronging him. 


II 


The young baroness’ first thought was to repair to 
her husband’s counsel, to avow all to him, and to ask 
his advice, for that advice would be indispensable to 
her. 

She could do nothing without it. 

She knew nothing of law. But with the perspi- 
cacity which is the great power of women, she sus- 
pected, with reason, that law is ambiguous, subject 
to all interpretations, full of pitfalls. 

Another motive incited her to seek the support of 
M. Levasseur, the young and brilliant member of 
the bar, whose eloquent speech had saved, at least, 
his client’s head. It has been said that very fre- 
quently at a time when men despair or waver, women 
show the most decision and composure. But those 
are two qualities rarely found in one woman. 

Decision in them is ordinarily the result of a fleet- 
ing desire, nervous and passing excitement. They 
proceed directly to the aim proposed with incontest- 
able firmness, but the choice of that aim often is only 
due to a violent impression, and denotes a lack of re- 
flection, a lack, sometimes, of judgment. 

In that way Mathilde de Cloziers had just brought 
upon herself a disastrous experience. 

88 


LITTLE MAN 


Was she not, indeed, very firm and very resolute in 
her determination to avenge the death of'Count de 
Platere upon her husband? Had she not followed that 
determination to the end, bringing about a monstrous 
wrong? 

Yet, to what more detestable inspiration could she 
have yielded than to that which had dictated her in- 
famous determination? 

Should she not then observe scrupulous prudence 
with regard to the first movement of her heart? 

No matter how great the energy of a woman, she 
increases it a hundredfold by the encouragement and 
co-operation of a man, especially when that woman 
has faith in the judgment of the man she consults. 

Mathilde, therefore, adhered to her first idea. 

She would do anything to gain, though the con- 
fession would be very painful to her, the pardon of 
the young lawyer, his pity, perhaps even his respect, 
on account of the great expiation she was imposing 
upon herself. 

Circumstances were favorable to her. 

Jean Levasseur was thirty years old. Although 
still young, he was one of the most cunning, most 
learned lawyers in Paris. Such a man was needed to 
aid Baroness de Cloziers in her efforts. 

M. Levasseur had left the court in despair on the 
condemnation of his client, in despair at his impo- 
tence to gain a victory by means of truth and justice. 

For, during the entire affair, he had pleaded with 


90 


LITTLE MAN 


the conviction that he was defending a sacred cause; 
he had always believed in the innocence of Robert de 
Cloziers, from the statement made by him at the be- 
ginning of the examination, from his first version of 
the murder of Platere, and of the presence of the 
baroness at the count's. 

But he had been forced to submit to the determi- 
nation of his client to keep his wife from the trial. 

Mme. de Cloziers kept at a distance and his verbal 
testimony retracted, there only remained her deposi- 
tion, or, more properly, the interpretation given by 
M. Pauly-Reverdiere to his contradictions and his 
reticence. 

How could the lawyer sustain a thesis contradicted 
by the author and by the formal and repeated nega- 
tion of the baroness.^ 

During the first days which followed the disappoint- 
ing termination of the trial, Jean Levasseur brooded 
morbidly over the blindness of men, as well as their 
perfidy. 

He was not therefore surprised on receiving the 
baroness' card. But he could not divine the object 
of her visit. 

For her part, Mathilde, notwithstanding the noble- 
ness of her resolution, could not help at the last mo- 
ment experiencing a bitter pang. 

An avowal is always painful. 

Especially when that avowal reveals grave facts 
with regard to which silence would be preferable. 


LITTLE MAN 


91 


For, now that the case had been decided, the step 
taken by Mme. de Cloziers, uselessly perhaps, would 
re-awaken controversies and polemics. The press 
had taken up the question and it would not allow an 
occasion to pass which would raise a new war of 
opinion, which would furnish such abundant matter 
for copy. 

If the baroness had simply been an unhappy wife, 
trying to regain for her husband the independence 
and honor of which he was deprived by an unjust 
sentence ! 

But such was not the case ! 

That Robert might regain his liberty, that he might 
recover his lost honor, it was necessary that Mathilde 
should lose hers; it would be necessary that she 
should go humbly to the judges and say: 

‘‘My husband spoke the truth on allowing to escape 
him his first cry of indignation and grief: he spoke 
the truth in accusing me! Not only am I a perjured 
woman, I am a criminal. I have forfeited truth; I 
have committed perjury, since I allowed to be ex- 
pressed in my name, words contrary to the truth, as 
well as to my own feelings; I have done more and 
worse, I signed my name to that false testimony.’’ 

She would go to the lawyer first, as she would to a 
confessor, — and it was, too, the scorn of that man 
which she would incur first. 

But there was something more terrible still. 

After her confession to him, in order that the ad- 


92 


LITTLE MAN 


vocate might act, would it not be necessary to try 
the case again? Consequently, would not fresh pub- 
licity, more scandalous still, be inevitable? 

In a few days Mathilde suffered a thousand deaths. 
Fortunately, those selfish thoughts were not strong 
enoug;h to prevent her from accomplishing what she 
now looked upon as her duty. 

Justice claimed the punishment of the guilty, who- 
soever it might be. But she was the only one! She 
accepted the punishment in advance. 

She no longer hesitated, and when she felt herself 
sufficiently composed, instead of deferring the real- 
ization of her plan until the morrow, when her de- 
termination might again waver, she decided to put it 
into execution at once. 

She therefore retired to her room, donned a toilette 
of second mourning, and bidding Justine, her maid, 
admit no one, she descended to the street alone and 
entered the first cab that passed. 

M. Jean Levasseur lived quite a distance away, on 
Boulevard Saint-Michel, nearer the Observatory than 
the Pantheon. 

Mathilde gave the address to the cabman. 

Several minutes later, she rang at the door of a 
very nice house. The hour of consultation was past 
and the lawyer had gone out, but he would not be 
gone long. That was what the footman told her, 
adding: 

‘‘Will madame wait a moment ?^^ 


LITTLE MAN 


93 


She decided to wait. 

She was ushered into a dark salon, adjoining the 
study in which Jean Levasseur worked and in which 
he held his consultations. She sank into a chair and 
closed her eyes. • 

Nothing is more fatiguing than to wait, especially 
in such a state of mind. But how much more pain- 
ful is it when he who suffers is obliged to defer by 
some delay the accomplishment of some important 
action! 

Mathilde de Cloziers was in that position. 

She had hastened to the lawyer’s lest her resolu- 
tion might forsake her. She was anxious to ease her 
mind and her heart by her confession, and so circum- 
stances added to the cruelty of the situation by pro- 
longing it. 

From the place where the baroness was seated, her 
eyes could watch the hand of the clock and count 
the minutes. Mechanically she fixed her eyes upon 
it and saw that it had stopped. 

That face, apparently insignificant, had awakened 
within her terrible memories. It was not the first 
time she had been in a similar position. The hands 
on her friend’s clock had likewise stopped, and she, 
with her perfidious fingers, had moved them on the 
day of the crime 1 And it was thanks to that facile 
ruse that she had been able to prove an alibi. Oh, 
how miserable she was! 

And, solitude aiding her, in the silence of that 


94 


LITTLE MAN 


salon, with its simple and austere decorations, be- 
speaking a man of duty and of virtue, her crime ap- 
peared still more atrocious in the woman’s eyes. She 
wondered if she could ever obtain forgiveness for it. 
Seized suddenly with a feeling of discouragement, 
she no longer felt strong enough to approach the man 
who was to be her first judge. A mad terror pos- 
sessed her at the thought of the confession she was 
about to make, a blush of shame mounted to her 
face, to her brow. She pictured to herself the judge 
with an austere countenance, whose first words — 
words of malediction — would deprive her of the 
power of continuing her confession. Then the tempt- 
er, who was on the eve of gaining a victory, repre- 
sented to that despondent soul the inutility of the 
confession, of the efforts she desired to make. 

Since the evil was done, since it was irreparable, 
of what use to take the means to ultimately assuage 
the consequences.^ No one would applaud the guilty 
woman — not even the man for whom she had re- 
solved to suffer. 

For Robert would not believe in her repentance. 

Had she not given him reason to condemn her.^^ 
As a faithless wife, she had betrayed his love; as a 
perjurer, she had achieved her frightful deed; she had 
aggravated it by a testimony which had ruined her 
innocent spouse, which had disgraced an honorable 
man. 

She told herself that she was cursed, and, in truth 


LITTLE MAN 


95 


the future was clothed for her in the infernal certi- 
tude of everlasting reprobation. If even she were to 
succeed in obtaining Robert de Cloziers' liberty, 
in reinstating him in the eyes of the world, would 
not all be at an end, henceforth, between her and 
him? 

She yielded to despair. Vanquished, she medi- 
tated for the first time the sinister, the cowardly 
resort of suicide. Was her life only ended! Were 
she only dead! 

She rose to go. 

At that moment the door of the lawyer^s study 
opened, and a young man, with a face both sympa- 
thetic and kindly, advanced towards the unhappy 
woman, saying to her: 

‘‘You wished to speak with me, madame. I am 
ready to hear you.” 

Mathilde de Cloziers was saved from despair. 


Ill 


The mere sight of M. Levasseur had given the bar- 
oness courage. 

But, although the kind expression upon his face 
had eased her mind, it filled her heart with sadness. 

It is not, indeed, the most violent words that have 
the greatest effect. A gentle word invites confidence; 
it determines the most perplexing cases. 

Mathilde was deeply touched by the lawyer's man- 
ner. Beneath the weight of the contradictory emo- 
tions which had agitated her for many days past, she 
suffered a nervous reaction, and scarcely had she 
entered the lawyer’s study than she burst into sobs. 

M. Levasseur did not know to what to attribute 
that burst of sorrow. 

‘‘Calm yourself, madame,” he. commenced. “You 
have, certainly, had a great misfortune. But after 
having defended the accused, I do not think my work 
terminated. I do not despair of obtaining from the 
President of the Republic a partial remission of the 
sentence inflicted upon my unfortunate client.” 

He uttered those words with a sort of hesitation, 
and it was natural that he should hesitate. The wo- 
man before him, he believed, or, more properly, he 
knew to be guilty. The tears she shed at that mo- 
96 


LITTLE MAN 


97 


ment seemed to him sincere ; but women in general 
are such clever actresses, that he feared her emotion 
might be one more piece of deception. “Partial re- 
mission!” with difficulty articulated Mathilde. 

“Yes, madame, — I hope so,” replied the lawyer. 

She succeeded in controlling her sorrow. 

“And that is — that is all that you hope for, sir?” • 

“It is not permitted me to hope for more, madame.” 

“What, sir? Is it vain for me to hope that my hus- 
band can escape that frightful sentence altogether?” 

“Alas! it is! M. de Cloziers must bear his punish- 
ment.” 

“Even if he be innocent?” 

That was the commencement of a confession. 

Jean Levasseur was too clever a psychologist not to 
know that the avowal would continue, if he simply 
aided her a little. 

“Madame,” said he with gravity, “if I had not be- 
lieved M. de Cloziers innocent, I should not have ac- 
cepted the defense.” 

Mathilde rose breathlessly from the chair in which 
the lawyer had seated her. She now ventured to look 
at him. Jean Levasseur could follow on her face all 
the stages of her trouble. He saw her change color, 
move her lips feverishly, and try to speak without 
uttering a sound. 

Finally, this cry escaped her oppressed breast: 

“See, sir, do not let us misunderstand one another. 

I have come to you as to a friend, as to a counsel- 


98 


LITTLE MAN 


or, as to a judge of whom I implore pity and succor. 
In order that the act I wish to accomplish may not 
be beyond my strength, you must lend me your hand, 
your assistance.” 

“I am willing to do so, madame,” said the young 
man with deference. 

That time he no longer doubted. 

Mme. de Cloziers was sincere in her sorrow. She 
had come to repair her wrong. 

She resumed: 

‘‘You have just told me that you believed my hus- 
band innocent — of the theft only, perhaps?” 

She fixed upon him her beautiful eyes, bright with 
fever and anxiety. She expected that he would spare 
her the terrors of a complete avowal. 

He replied: 

“I believed and believe M. de Cloziers entirely in- 
nocent.” He emphasized his words. 

The woman shuddered. 

“Thank you, sir,” said she in a voice scarcely 
audible. “You spare me the pain of telling you my- 
self that I am the true cause of my husband’s con- 
demnation. But, as low as I have fallen, there re- 
mains to me, thank God, the consciousness of my 
fault and the wish to repair it. Only, I require aid, 
support, encouragement. The first thing that I ask 
of you, is the hope of pardon.” 

And, carried away by her enthusiasm, she kneeled 
before Jean Levasseur. 


LITTLE MAN 


99 


The lawyer was more deeply moved than he cared 
to allow her to see. 

He extended his hand to the poor baroness. 

“Rise, madame,” said he, “and permit me to say 
to you, first of all, that if M. de Cloziers were pres- 
ent at this moment, this scene would apply balm to 
the wound in his heart.’’ 

Mathilde, however, did not rise. 

“Ah! sir,” she cried amid her tears, “I am aware 
of my unworthiness. But you who witness it, you 
who receive my confession, tell him, that, although 
I committed a sin in allowing him to be condemned, 
although appearances were against me, I only yielded 
to a mad infatuation. Tell him, I conjure you, as 
soon as you can, that he is mistaken in believing me 
guilty of — the rest; tell him that M. de Platere was 
never my lover 1” 

She had seized the hand of the young advocate, who 
was very much confused by that beginning. For, 
in truth, though he had expected a confession, he 
was not prepared for such words. 

He therefore asked in astonishment: 

“But, madame, of what are you accusing yourself .J”’ 

Mathilde divined that he was suspicious of her. 

“Oh! I beseech you, sir, do not believe me only 
partly. I assure you I speak the truth ! Do you not 
think me infamous for having lent a hand to that 
atrocious drama Yes, I fancied I loved M. de Pla- 
tere, who, I thought, loved me purely. Yes, I accepted 


lOO 


LITTLE MAN 


the homage of that love which I believed sincere, and 
I simply went to his house to bid him an eternal fare- 
well, convinced that he was, sacrificing himself to my 
happiness, in exiling himself from Paris. Yes, over 
his corpse still warm, beneath my husband’s smok- 
ing pistol, seized by I know not what inexplicable 
madness, I swore to avenge his death ! And it was 
that sacrilegious vow which I in my madness kept ! 
But all is over. Robert de Cloziers merely killed a 
fancied rival. He has not, I swear to you, committed 
any crime.’' 

She rose to utter those last words. Erect, trem- 
bling, her hand upraised solemnly, she was wonder- 
fully beautiful. And Levasseur, as he gazed upon 
her, said to himself: 

‘^The woman is not lying. I can see that Robert, 
at the thought of his ruined future, was seized with 
the insane desire for murder.” 

“Be seated, madame,” said he, “and let us now 
talk of your plan. You desire, as far as I can judge, 
to render invalid your husband’s sentence.^ From the 
first, they will confront you with your own denials.” 

“Not only shall I deny nothing more,” she ex- 
claimed, “but I will prove that my husband told the 
truth and that I deceived justice.” 

“Very well,” coldly interrupted the lawyer, “how 
will you prove it?” 

“Will not my disinterested testimony suffice?” 

“We will consider the value of your testimony pres- 


LITTLE MAN 


lOI 


ently. Just now, let us examine the facts. We 
have before us a judged case, — you will be forced 
to protest not only against the decree of the 
judges, but also against the verdict of the jury, against 
the inquiry of the magistrates, against your husband's 
confession. That all presents a concordance of facts, 
of arguments, which it seems to me will be difficult 
to surmount.^’ 

“Oh, sir!'' moaned Mathilde, clasping her hands, 
“is it then impossible?" 

“I did not say that, madame, and God prevent me 
from discouraging your generous initiative. I only 
wish to have you weigh matters and to have you com- 
prehend the gravity of the — facts on which are founded 
the opinion of the jury, as well as that of the public 
minister. Let us examine them in detail, if you like: 

“First of all, the fact of your interview with Count 
de Plat ere. How shall we settle that? You repaired 
to Rue Spontini, where people live and where there 
are passers-by; you went thither at an hour when any 
one might surprise you. But no one saw you in the 
house, no one recognized you in the neighborhood. 
Moreover, the alibi proven by you, will be against 
you, since it agreed exactly with your friend's testi- 
mony." 

Mme. de Cloziers interrupted him hastily: 

“The alibi, alas! Satan prompted me in that." 

And she forthwith related to M. Levasseur the en- 
tire story of her visit to her friend, — everything, in a 


102 


LITTLE man 


word, which a few moments before had occurred to 
her in the silent salon of the advocate. 

The latter shook his head. 

“Alas! Madame, all that is, indeed, a wonderful 
tissue of concordances and of infernal skill. But if, 
as you have just said, Satan was your accomplice, — 
your friend is not, since you deceived her, too, — you 
have just told me how 1 You cannot do away with 
that alibi; you have woven the plot too securely, and 
it is yourself who will be caught in it to-day.” 

Mathilde was startled. 

“Oh,” she exclaimed, “could we not find something 
else ?” 

“Perhaps,” said the lawyer, enigmatically, “if you 
could produce a contradictory fact.” 

“A fact There is a fact. Yes, listen, there is a 
fact. For example, I wrote to Count de Platere to 
announce my visit to him.” 

The advocate started. 

“Ah!” said he. “That is something. Was it sent 
by post.J^” 

“Yes.” 

“That might serve us, I believe, if the letter could 
be shown, and especially its post-marked envelope, 
bearing a certain date. But what has become of 
them.?” 

Mme. de Cloziers continued: 

“If the count did not destroy them, they should 
be in his pocket-book, in his pocket, or perhaps in a 
drawer.” 


LITTLE MAN 


103 


“Alas!’’ sighed Jean Levasseur, “the examination 
was made by M. Pauly-Reverdiere, one of the most 
particular magistrates to be found. They searched 
every article of furniture, all his wearing apparel, — 
and you know that a document of siich moment, had 
it still existed, would not have escaped the eyes of 
those in search of it.” 

Mathilde was discouraged. 

It was as if unfavorable circumstances combined to 
place obstacles in her way. She cried : 

“But, sir, if a person were to say: I have borne 
false witness, I have caused the condemnation of an 
innocent person, could not the law be moved.^ Could 
nothing be done.?” 

“I ask your p'ardon, madame; by the terms of the 
law of June 29, 1867, modifying article 443 and 
those following of the code of criminal law, the revis- 
ion of a legal decision, with regard to a criminal act 
or an act of misdemeanor, can be applied for, if one 
of the witnesses heard has condemned a man by means 
of false testimony.” 

“Well!” impetuously exclaimed the woman. “Let 
them prosecute me for perjury!” 

She added imploringly to her interlocutor: 

“To whom must I apply.?” 

Jean Levasseur could not suppress his admiration 
as he contemplated her. He thought: 

“Ah, those women ! Creatures of impulse ! Sublime 
or infamous!” 


104 


LITTLE MAN 


He replied: 

“You would have to apply to the public minister, 
who has power to prosecute, and who,” the advocate 
smiled, “will not prosecute you, madame.” 

“Why not? If I accuse myself?” 

“Ah! I confess that there are reasons for listening 
to you. But — pardon me for saying so, madame — we 
know the versatility, the nervousness of your sex. 
They will think that you accuse yourself somewhat 
late — that your husband's fate has finally touched 
you — that it has become painful for you to see him 
sent to the galleys, and to be the wife of a convict.” 

“What!” cried the baroness. “They will imagine 
all that and the truth will not be believed by them ! 
Certainly, I deserve that anything be believed of me, 
but, still, can they not prove my words, can they 
not use my assertions for the benefit of the unfortu- 
nate man to whom I dedicate myself!” 

M. Levasseur replied gravely: 

“You are no doubt right, madame, and your words- 
are logical. But there was some logic too in the 
magistrate's conduct. Put yourself a moment in the 
place of the attorney-general. How could he believe 
you? The information is there before his eyes. You 
begin by saying: I never went to Count dePlatere's. 
A few moments later, you confess that you were there. 
In another moment, the judge urging you, you say 
again: I was not there. And now, returning to your 
first declarations, you try to render all invalid, and. 


LITTLE MAN 


105 


by a fourth change, you affirm : I was there. Admit, 
madame, it is confusing and that the magistrates 
have a right to seem incredulous.^’ 

The baroness remained silent several instants, 
crushed by the simplicity of that argument, con- 
founded by that logic. A despairing cry rose to her 
lips: 

'‘Then, sir, my husband, your client, will go to the 
galleys! All is lost, and you see nothing to be done!” 

“On the contrary, much can be done,” replied Lev- 
asseur. 

She raised her eyes to his and opened her mouth 
to question him. He anticipated her words, and 
stopping her by a gesture: 

“Give me twenty-four hours in which to think it 
over,” said he; “return hither to-morrow. I must 
have that much time to make my plans, and I will set 
all other matters aside in order to attend to it.” 

“Until to-morrow then, sir,” sighed Mathilde, leav- 
ing the lawyer’s study. 


The following day, at the hour appointed, Mme. 
de Cloziers returned to M. Jean Levasseur’s. 

She was almost as agitated as she had been on the 
preceding day. But, at any rate, she had more hope. 

Had not the lawyer told her that he saw “much to 
be done.^” 

The poor woman was so anxious to hope that a dis- 
appointment would have killed her, she felt it. 

The night after that first consultation was terrible. 

Mathilde had been unable to sleep. And while she 
counted the interminable hours of the “dismal winter 
night, her thoughts were occupied with her past life, 
still so recent, as a happy wife, adored by her hus- 
band, and the horrible present of a guilty wife, sepa- 
rated henceforth from that husband by the iniquitous 
sentence which she had, in a manner, herself dictated 
to justice. 

That was not all. 

Her distracted mind turned towards the terminus 
of Paris-Lyon, towards the horrible spot which en- 
closes those detained for crime, towards dreadful 
Mazas from which one only issues polluted, disgraced, 
and from which Robert would only come to sail for 
New Caledonia, if the clemency of the Chief of the 
106 


LITTLE MAN 


107 


State would not allow him to “serve his time” in a 
more central place, at Melun or at Poissy. 

And during those nights she thought inconsolably 
of the unhappy man, of the innocent man whom she 
had caused to be ostracized from society. 

Then Mathilde rose, burning with fever, and yet 
chilled by the cold of January. She rushed to her 
prie-dieu^ above which was hung a portrait of the 
baron in the bloom of his youth and strength. With 
her face hidden by the waves of her flowing hair, not 
daring to look upon the likeness of the man so cun- 
ningly betrayed, she murmured a prayer: 

“Robert, Robert, pardon! Yes, I am an infamous 
creature, I deserve neither pity nor aid. But I vow 
that I will repair the wrong done you, that you shall 
be freed, that you will be restored your sullied but 
not lost honor. Afterwards, you can trample upon 
me, you can kill me if you will. I shall love you, I 
shall bless you even, for you shall be my judge, and 
I shall have expiated my crime.” 

Thus Mathilde spent the night. 

Her face wore traces of insomnia and anguish when 
she reached M. Levasseur’s. 

The advocate pitied the poor woman whose repent- 
ance was so poignant. 

He wished to encourage her and spoke first. 

“I have weighed the matter, madame, and, with 
God’s help, I think we shall accomplish the object 
you have so generously proposed. But a great effort 


LITTLE MAN 


I08 

must be made. You will have to be patient first of 
all, and to submit to humiliation, even to insults later 
on.’’ 

“Ah! speak! speak!” exclaimed Mathilde with 
clasped hands. “I will submit to anything, I will do 
anything.” 

The lawyer assumed a serious attitude, his brow 
resting upon his hand, as it had a few days before, on 
his seat in the Court of Assizes, when he was prepar- 
ing his speech. Then, raising his head: 

“This,” said he, “is the only step to follow. The 
entire argument of the accusation rests on the lack 
of proof positive against M. de Cloziers. He has not 
been convicted directly of assassination and of theft, 
but they concluded from his confession of murder, his 
intention to steal. In other words, they supposed 
that the money drawn by M. de Platere and which 
they could find neither on him nor in his house, fell 
into the hands of the murderer, that is to say, of your 
husband. You see, therefore, there is not a proof, 
but a supposition. Please follow me attentively.” 

Mathilde, incapable of speech, signed with her head 
that she would not lose a syllable. 

The lawyer continued: 

“It is manifest that the money has been stolen, not 
from M. de Platere living, but from M. de Platere 
dead. Someone then was near the corpse between 
the time the murder was committed and the time it 
was discovered by Charles Leflot and Gabrielle de 


LITTLE MAN 


TO9 


Lange. There lies the point of fact and also all the 
difficulty of your undertaking. We must discover the 
real purloiner of the thirty thousand francs and of 
the three railroad bonds. Then we will denounce 
him to the public minister who will prosecute and 
sentence him.’’ 

“And my husband.^” exclaimed Mathilde, possessed 
by sudden joy. 

“Listen. When two sentences cannot be recon- 
ciled, their contradiction becomes the proof of the 
innocence of the one or the other of the condemned. 
The case of the true culprit decided, Baron de Clo- 
ziers from his prison or from the galleys will ask the 
minister of the law for a new trial. Your husband’s 
innocence will then explode the theory of theft which 
alone caused him to be sentenced to hard labor. We 
will throw light upon the rest, — thanks to your testi- 
mony, which can no longer be doubted, acquittal and 
rehabilitation will certainly follow.” 

“Oh!” exclaimed the baroness, “that will be, will 
it not, sir.^” 

“If God wills it, madame,” replied the advocate; 
“but many difficulties, many obstacles will arise.” 

“God will have it so, sir! He will not condemn me 
to perdition after this world. And then, you, so 
clever, so far-seeing, will be the best of counselors, 
the most prudent of guides. You will direct me, you 
will aid me in accomplishing my purpose.” 

Levasseur was moved. 


no 


LITTLE MAN 


“I pray you, madame, do not let us flatter our- 
selves with chimerical hopes, the failure of which 
would be still more disappointing. How, alas! can 
we find the purloiner of the thirty thousand francs, 
the three bonds, and probably your letter to Count 
de Platere as well! No doubt it will not be impossi- 
ble, but we must bear in mind that it will be very 
difficult.” 

Mathilde rose. She replied with animation; 

“I will succeed, sir, should I lose my life in the at- 
tempt!” 

The lawyer held out his hand. 

“Very well, madame, I accept that as an omen. 
But, whatsoever may happen, let me assure you now 
that your noble action of to-day has made amends 
for many faults committed, and if success crown 
your efforts, it will efface the memory of your — error.” 

Mathilde, retained his hand and pressed it warmly. 

“God bless you, sir, for granting me that first ab- 
solution. I should not have dared to ask you for en- 
couragement, but I accept with gratitude that which 
you have given me spontaneously.” 

She withdrew, lowering over her face the thick 
mourning veil which she wore. 

On reaching the threshold of the salon, however, 
she turned again towards the lawyer. 

Her voice was changed. 

“May I be permitted,” she said, “to ask one more 
favor r’ 


LITTLE MAN 


III 


‘^Speak, madame/’ replied Levasseur, “I am at 
your service/^ 

She seemed to suppress a sentiment of shame. 

“I should like/’ she began with difficulty. “I should 
like—” 

Interrupting herself with a sob, she murmured: 

“But, no, it is too much and it is too soon.” 

The young lawyer divined her thoughts. He 
divined the request at which she hesitated and dared 
not utter. 

“I repeat to you, madame, I will do what you de- 
sire.” 

Then Mathilde took courage and breathed this 
prayer: 

“This is what I should like, sir, and what Ts per- 
haps a little too ambitious. I cannot, I dare not yet 
ask to see my husband in his prison. I have done 
him too much harm; the sight of me would inspire 
him with horror. But what I cannot do, you can, 
sir. Will you repeat to my poor, my beloved Robert, 
the two conversations which we had together, — tell 
him that I ask his pardon humbly, on my knees, that 
I love him with all my soul as I have never loved him ? 
Will you assure him that I was not — what he thought 
— with regard to M. de Platere; that the terrible oc- 
currence has cured my poor, sick mind forever.^ Will 
you tell him that before or after his pardon, whether 
he receives or repulses me, I belong wholly to him, 
body and soul, in this world and in the other, and 


II2 


LITTLE MAN 


that I will not rest an hour until he has regained his 
liberty and his honor?” 

As she uttered those words in broken accents, Ma- 
thilde de Cloziers was surrounded by a mysterious 
fascination which enveloped her beauty in a sublime 
aureole. 

Jean Levasseur bowed respectfully. 

“I shall go to see your husband to-day, madame, 
for I do not wish to defer one hour the accomplish- 
ment of a message which I consider an important 
duty. I will repeat it to him word for word; he is 
only suffering from what he calls your desertion, and 
your attestations of to-day will bear healing balm to 
his wounded soul. They will do him good and will 
give him a little hope.” 

And leaving the young woman to withdraw com- 
forted, he hastened to pass into his chamber in order 
there to make a rapid toilette to go at once to Mazas. 

It was half-past four in the evening; night was ap- 
proaching. But there is no time for lawyers when 
their clients are concerned, even after condemnation, 
and the night is never so dark and so frightful that 
it is not brightened by a ray of hope. 


V 


Since that terrible sentence had been pronounced, 
Robert de Cloziers, provisionally imprisoned at 
Mazas as a thief, and not at Grande-Roquette as an 
assassin, had been possessed by gloomy despair. 

The courage he had shown during the debates at 
the Assizes had forsaken him. Alone henceforth, 
having no one to observe him, no more curious glances 
to insult his sorrow, he could mourn at his pleasure. 

His wife, that creature so beautiful, whom he had 
believed so noble, whom he had loved so passionately, 
had inflicted upon him the most atrocious suffering. 
This picture returned constantly to his mind: Gon- 
tran de Platere encircling the form of Mathilde 
and pressing his lips upon hers. That he had seen, 
and he could not delude himself into believing it un- 
true. 

Then, even when before the world he had accepted 
the charge of dishonesty, even when he had pro- 
claimed the innocence of his victim which made of 
him the culprit, he could not succeed in persuading 
himself that he had been the plaything of an abomin- 
able nightmare. 

Oh ! the horrible memory ! The frightful obsession ! 
Robert felt madness possess him. And he told him- 
113 


LITTLE MAN 


1 14 

self that, henceforth, he should have to live with that 
perpetual hallucination, which was the truth. How 
he would have blessed the being, human or divine, 
who would succeed in removing that certitude from 
his mind! 

It was in such a condition that M. Levasseur found 
him. It was late, — the somber hour of twilight, 
when day, about to end, overspreads all objects with 
a funereal light. The cell, receiving its light from, 
above, was gradually filled with shadow, and with 
the shadow re-entered despair, more inevitable, more 
invincible than ever. 

Robert was seated on his wretched iron bed. 

At the sight of the lawyer, he rose brusquely, moved 
perhaps by some strange presentiment. But, that 
time, the presentiment was not one of misfortune. 

“How kind of you to come,” said he, extending both 
hands to M. Levasseur. 

“I have something new to tell you.” 

“New.? What can there be new in my position .?” 

He looked at the lawyer as if in a stupor. 

The latter replied, smiling: 

“Something that will surely give you pleasure, and 
perhaps will cause you great joy.” 

The prisoner smiled with difficulty and shrugged 
his shoulders. 

“Alas! dear master, I am obliged to you for trying 
to console me. But you know as well as I, what 
joy can there be for me henceforth?” 


LITTLE MAN 


II5 

dejected? Have I not always told you that 
sin is almost always punished?’^ 

Robert opened his eyes wide. 

“Do you mean by that that my innocence has been 
discovered?’’ 

“Not yet, but it will be.” 

The condemned man’s head drooped upon his breast. 

“Any other but me, dear sir, would rejoice at such 
an announcement, but what can it bring to me of con- 
solation or of hope? Is my life by it less finished, my 
happiness less destroyed? Even now if the truth 
should come to light, even if all that crowd which 
hooted me should come to seek me triumphantly in 
this place under the conduct of those same judges 
whose sentence ruined me, would my misfortune be 
less complete? What would all that avail me? I had 
only one aim, one passion, my love for her. It is 
dead.” 

The baron’s voice trembled. 

The lawyer placed his hand upon his shoulder. 

“Love does not die, dear Robert — for you will 
permit me to speak to you as a friend, will you not ? 
Love does not die, or at least, it can revive. Would 
you dare to swear that you no longer love — this wo- 
man?” 

He did not reply at once. 

But his face flushed, his eyes sparkled. 

“Not dead, my love? You think so? And do you 
think it could survive that terrible discovery ? Do you 


LITTLE MAN 


Il6 

think that during the day as I meditate, at night as 
I lie awake, that I have not incessantly before my 
eyes the horrible scene; that I do not see again the 
embrace, the kiss which drove me mad, which made 
of me a murderer? Oh, the accursed woman, whom I 
should have killed with her lover! At least, I should 
have avenged my honor! I should be in jail and my 
wound would bleed no more! Ah! if I — ” 

The lawyer interrupted him: 

“You did not kill her because you loved her, and 
if the remembrance tortures you to that extent, it is 
because you still love her.’^ 

Robert buried his face in both hands. 

“Alas! Alas! You are implacable! You have the 
keen eye of the doctor who diagnoses a case! Yes, it 
is true — it is only too true — I love her still ! I love 
her in spite of her treachery, in spite of the infamous 
comedy she enacted before the justice. Oh! I repeat 
it, why did I not kill her at the same time as the 
other? Or rather, why did I not kill her in preference 
to the other? He was following his profession of se- 
ducer, of purloiner of the possessions of others. But 
she — she — Mathilde !^^ 

Levasseur crossed his arms with great nobleness. 

“My friend,’^ said he, “rejoice that you did not ac- 
complish that act. It would have been a veritable 
crime. God saved you at that moment. In killing 
M. de Platere, you have committed a blamable act, 
assuredly, but for which the law itself would have 


LITTLE MAN 


II7 


exonerated you. In killing your wife you would have 
inflicted a chastisement disproportionate to the repre- 
hensible action.” 

“Indeed, my dear sir,” exclaimed the baron, “I no 
longer comprehend you. What! You, who, as my 
counselor, absolutely desired the appearance of my 
wi — of Mme. de Cloziers, as witness at the Court of 
Assizes, do you now say she is innocent.?” 

And he added with a smile profoundly bitter: 

“Ah! really, have you too submitted to the en- 
chantress’ charm.?” 

The lawyer’s face assumed a severe expression. 

“M. de Cloziers, I would have the right to be in- 
sulted by your words. I pardon you in consideration 
of the trouble into which you have been cast by so 
many unforeseen and sad events. I return therefore 
to what I was saying. It is very fortunate that the 
blindness of your rage did not make you a two-fold 
murderer. Like you, I accused Mme. de Cloziers, 
like you I looked upon her attitude towards you in 
court as odious. To-day, without seeking to exten- 
uate her wrongs, to palliate her faults — too real, alas! 
— I dare, however, to say to you: Your wife was mad, 
possessed by a strange frenzy which science itself 
could not explain, and it was under the sway of that 
madness that she in turn became a faithless spouse 
and false witness.” 

“And you do not think those things crimes.? You 
call them madness.?” 


ii8 


LITTLE MAN 


‘^Wait. Let me finish. That madness — for I can 
find no other name for it — has, happily, ceased.’* 

“A little late,” scoffed poor Robert. 

‘‘A little late, I agree, but not too late, since your 
wife has regained her reason, since she acknowledges 
her error.” 

“Error — the adulteress! Error — the perjurer!” 

“Call it crime, if you like! She has discovered it, 
I say, she regrets it, and she wishes to make repara- 
tion at any price.” 

“That is it! — Oh, the good soul! She deceives a 
husband who adores her, she swears over her lover's 
body to avenge his death — and then she allows to 
rest upon her husband an infamous accusation. Then, 
when the law has pronounced sentence, when she 
has taken from her husband what remains of honor 
by sending him to jail, she decides that it is not pleas- 
ant to be the wife of a convict, and in order to gain 
public favor, she simulates a virtuous wife, devoted 
notwithstanding her wrongs ; she vows to repair her 
wrong, when she knows very well that it is irrepara- 
ble, and perhaps forms a project to simulate widow- 
hood and to live behind the gratings of a dungeon, 
or in the distant land henceforth to be inhabited by 
the convict. See here, my friend, let us cease this. 
That creature is a monster, and I believe that I could 
hate her!” 

He sank back upon his bed, and, his head buried 
in the covers, he sobbed. 


LITTLE MAN 


II9 

Levasseur was moved by that despair. 

However, his faith in Mme. de Cloziers must have 
been absolute, for he did not let that cry of anguish 
discourage him. 

“Listen to me, my poor friend,’’ he resumed gently. 
“I did not come hither to add to your suffering, but 
to apply balm to your wound. Listen to me, there- 
fore, credulously. I have no reason for lying to you, 
for holding up to you illusions. I am only obeying 
the desire expressed by your wife, whom I have seen.” 

“You have seen her.^” exclaimed the baron, with a 
start. 

“To-day,” replied the lawyer; “and I promised her 
to bear to you at once, and without omitting one 
syllable, without adding the least word, the long con- 
versation we had together.” 

Robert de Cloziers' eyes glittered nervously, his 
temples throbbed, his ears hummed. 

The lawyer took advantage of that moment of 
attention accorded him to relate his conversation with 
Mathilde during the two visits paid him by her, 

Robert trembled in every limb. In spite of him- 
self, he began to believe, to hope. My God! Was it 
possible that this hideous dream would vanish, as 
happens on awaking from a troubled sleep.? 

Finally a heart-rending cry escaped him. 

“Ah,” he moaned, “of what avail all that.? I could 
forgive her perjury, her cold cruelty, her persevering 
hatred — all, all excepting this: she was another's! 
No, no, my friend, I could never forget it.” 


120 


LITTLE MAN 


“Even if it had never beenr" 

The expression of morbid astonishment in the 
baron’s eyes increased. 

“But I tell you that I saw them!” 

He wrung his hands, while hoarse moans escaped 
his breast. 

“You saw them,” continued Levasseur, “what 
did you see? Your wife in the count’s arms, he 
pressed her to his breast.” 

“Yes, lip against lip, both intoxicated with love.” 

“Very well. That kiss haunts you? That kiss 
was the first — and the last. I tell you that Mme. de 
Cloziers was beside herself, that the man had be- 
witched her. She believed in his love, in his purity, 
in his disinterestedness. He told her he was about 
to leave Paris, to fly from her, and touched by his 
generous self-sacrifice, she went to him to prove her 
gratitude, to console him. That is not a romance, 
but a true history of that kiss.” 

Robert shrugged his shoulders with an angry gest- 
ure. “Pshaw! You say that is no romance? But 
it is; all this story has been invented to regain the 
esteem, or at least to obtain the pity of the husband ! 
Ah! that woman has felt, if not remorse, at least 
fear for her crime ! In her waking hours she has 
seen the two victims of her artifices: on the one side 
the bleeding corpse of a man wounded by a bullet; 
on the other, a living man with head shaven, drag- 
ging a weight at his ankles. The corpse is trouble- 


LITTLE MAN 


I2I 


some at night; when she dreams, above all; but she 
can forget that. Then, too, they say the dead do 
not return, and he will guard her secret forever. But 
the living? Ah, that is another matter! He is in- 
nocent, he is unhappy; he has a wounded heart, he 
might cherish a thirst for vengeance, he could and 
he might return from the galleys. It is never too 
late to take precautions, to assure the future, to ap- 
pease intense anger which might be implacable and 
unrelenting. Ah! that woman has need of my par- 
don! Well! I refuse to give it. Tell her.’’ 

Levasseur interrupted him again. 

pray you, my friend, not to be so violent. I 
repeat that I believe in Mme. de Cloziers’ repent- 
ance, in her sincerity. Do not on account of unjust, 
imprudent resentment, prevent the work of repa- 
ration from being accomplished. Let me bear to the 
poor woman a word of hope. If you open to her the 
prospect of pardon, she will be heroic, grander in 
her expiation than she was vile and despicable in 
her crime.” 

He spoke with fervor. 

Robert was touched. 

But it is not by words, no matter how eloquent, 
that one can cure wounds so deep. The baron had 
suffered too much to be moved by that first consola- 
tion, to be elated at the first ray of hope. 

He looked blankly at his interlocutor. 

And as the latter said to him in the manner of a 


122 


LITTLE MAN 


peroration: ‘-See here, de Cloziers, one kind word 

— do not make of an accident, very sad surely, an 
irremediable calamity.’^ 

He muttered a few words between his teeth: 

‘‘Tell her — tell the miserable woman — that when 
she has put to the service of a good cause all the 
energy she expended in causing the triumph of in- 
iquity — when she has righted the wrong she has done, 
then — 

“Then you will pardon her, will you not?’^ 

“Then,’’ gravely said the baron, “as she will only 
have accomplished the most imperious duties, I will 
render her the justice she will have merited. I will 
cease cursing her, but until the day of my death, I 
shall bear in my breast the wound she has made. 
Tell her that she will have nothing, absolutely noth- 
ing, to fear from me, but that henceforth all is at an 
end between us.” 

Jean Levasseur understood the human heart too 
well not to feel assured that the first concession would 
be followed by many others. Robert still loved his 
wife. He loved her madly. Anger alone dictated 
that decree, inexorable only to all appearances. 

The lawyer withdrew, satisfied with his interview 
with the condemned. 

He remarked that, on his departure, the baron 
asked him at what date his next visit would take 
place. 

He promised to return in two days, and he saw an 


LITTLE MAN 


123 


expression of delight light up the baron’s features. 

“Well/’ said he to himself as he withdrew, “that is 
doing nicely. Ah, my poor fellow, you are merci- 
less, you refuse to pardon ! I shall know what step to 
take to lead you whither I wish you to go. You will 
send for me to-morrow.” 


VI 


The lawyer saw clearly into his client’s mind. 

Scarcely had ‘he crossed the threshold of the cell, 
than Robert de Cloziers looked forward to his return. 

The fever of impatience had seized the prisoner. 

Hope is at once a consolation and a torment. 

But M. de Levasseur’s unexpected revelation had 
aroused great hope in the baron’s breast. 

Although he had spoken angrily, he was none the 
less devoted to his wife. He loved her as dearly as 
he had on the first day, and persons who love in that 
way have within them an inexhaustible fund of in- 
dulgence and of pardon. 

Certainly, Mathilde had been very guilty with re- 
gard to her husband. She had been more than guilty, 
she had been criminal. And notwithstanding all, 
Robert felt that were she to return to him, he would 
yield, he would forgive her. 

At that hour, forgiveness seemed to him like a 
duty. For pardon is always due to repentance, and if 
Levasseur’s words were true, Mathilde was penitent. 

The night which followed that conversation, the 
condemned man spent sleeplessly. 

The following day seemed to him interminable. 

How the unhappy man counted the hours as they 
124 


LITTLE MAN 


125 

sounded in the silence! How many times did he find 
•himself listening to the sound of the guard’s footsteps 
in the dark corridors! And at other times, falling into 
a reverie, his thoughts followed the trains, announc- 
ing flight far from Paris. 

There were the wealthy, the happy who could leave 
the large city and go away to Lyons, to Marseilles, 
to the golden shores caressed by the blue waves of 
enchantment and intoxication. He knew them, those 
enchantments and intoxications. Had he not seen 
those shores and tasted of those delights at that bliss- 
ful period of ardent joy which had succeeded his mar- 
riage? 

And now the abominable irony of Fate had chained 
him directly opposite the station so familiar to him, 
to make him the witness of the happiness of others! 
The unfortunate man knew that he would never leave 
that jail except to take the road to the galleys. The 
convoy of which he would be a member would join 
at Marseilles another come from some other point of 
France. He would embark with a number of real 
malefactors, on one of the state transport vessels 
bound for New Caledonia. Again he saw Marseilles, 
the port. La Joliette, the castle d’lf, through a veil 
of tears which blotted out from his sight the horizon 
of his fatherland. 

And brusquely those cruel dreams were interrupted. 

A voice said to the unhappy man: 

“That shall not be! That abominable nightmare 


126 


LITTLE MAN 


has lasted only too long. Here have returned liberty 
and home; here has returned love!” 

Poor Robert! The words of Levasseur had sufficed 
to give birth to that comforting hallucination. 

Liberty! Honor! Love! Three sacred words which 
the recent past had made void of sense for him, the 
prisoner comprehended them anew, and again he sub- 
mitted to their mirage, to their caress. 

Mathilde was penitent, Mathilde wished to repair 
her fault! She had said so to the lawyer; she had 
gone to see him, expressly to tell him so! And she 
would employ all her strength, expend all her energy 
in the accomplishment of that design. Sweeter than 
any other thought, than any hypothesis, slowly this 
certitude crept into the captive’s mind; Mathilde 
had not sinned as deeply as he thought she had! She 
had not been de Platere’s mistress! 

That alone caused Robert to forget everything else! 
He was willing to spend his life within those somber 
walls. He accepted the jail, the galleys cheerfully! 
What mattered liberty, honor to him.^ Did not his 
conscience bear witness against the judgment of 
men.? But Mathilde’s love, his wife’s love, his wife, 
faithful, pure in spite of appearances, that was what 
he asked at any price. That was what he desired. 

At that moment the memory of all injury was 
effaced, and he told himself, with a shudder, that if 
the door of his prison were to open, if the adored 
creature were to enter, she whom he had cursed, she 


i 


V 






1 


■>3 

■4 


'i 

1 


LITTLE MAN 


127 


whom he had refused a word of absolution, he would 
open his arms to the repentant sinner. He would 
not even reproach her. No allusion to her crime 
would pass his lips, so greatly would he dread recur- 
ring to the hideous past. The past ! — Alas, he should 
have said the present ! 

The present;— for the door did not open, the law- 
yer did not return ! 

What a long time he took! 

A sort of fury insensibly possessed the unhappy 
Robert;— he felt himself becoming mad; he began to 
hate the man. Why had he called up that illusion? 
Judges and jurors were less cruel. They at least had 
pronounced sentence without delay, warning the con- 
demned man that, as in the infernal regions viewed 
by Dante, he must leave hope on the threshold. But 
that Levasseur? Why was he dallying with him thus? 
Ah, yes, the young lawyer had read that soul aright! 
And it was because he had read it that he did not 
hasten to return! He wished to leave all the time 
necessary for hatred to die out, for resentment to dis- 
solve. He wished on entering the prison to be met 
with these words: 

^^My wife! What did my wife say?’’ 

So Jean Levasseur did not return to Mazas for 
forty-eight hours after the date fixed upon with his 
client. Consequently four days had passed between 
the two interviews. 

He found Robert in a state bordering on morose- 


128 


LITTLE MAN 


ness. To feverish excitement had succeeded dejec- 
tion. The baron remained motionless in his cell, his 
hands on his knees, his eyes fixed on the ground. He 
rose with an effort to meet the lawyer, and with anx- 
iety the latter perceived that he was really ill. 

He received his visitor languidly. 

“I thought I should not see you any more,” said 
he. 

'‘Why not.?” 

“Did you not say you would be here the day before 
yesterday.? That was two days ago.” 

The lawyer offered as pretexts lack of time, press- 
ure of business, and so forth, while in truth he re- 
gretted his delay as he saw the effect produced on 
his client’s mind and body. He would at once try to 
relieve him. 

“My dear friend,” said he, “I should only come 
here each time with an amelioration for your lot. I 
find, indeed, that without being really ill, you can- 
not stand the regime of this place. I shall therefore 
ask immediately that your place of confinement be 
changed.” 

“Thank you,” replied Robert, “I confess I shall 
not object to it. But where would you have me go.? 
Am I not destined to go some day by convoy to Mar- 
seilles or He de Rhe.?” 

“Much might happen before then, and meantime 
I shall ask for a bed in the infirmary for you!” 

“May God reward you for your kindness!” mur- 
mured the young man with gratitude. 


LITTLE MAN 


129 


Then controlling himself: 

“Have you — seen — her — again?” he asked, while 
a blush overspread his face. 

“Yes,” replied Levasseur. 

“Ah! — And — what — did she say to you?” 

The lawyer looked grave. 

“I repeated our dialogue to her. She was very 
much affected by it. She wept a great deal, and did 
not attempt to defend herself or to protest.” 

“Ah! She wept?” 

“Yes. She submitted to your decree: ‘I have 
merited it,’ said she to me, ‘I deserve no mercy. 
But I shall do my duty none the less. I shall per- 
haps die in the attempt, but I shall die happy for 
having made reparation for my crime. Repeat to 
Robert that which I have already told you: I was 
never false to him, I was simply imprudent. God 
stopped me on the edge of the abyss. I always loved 
my husband: to-day I love him madly, and am his, 
body and soul. At the moment you think opportune, 
I will give myself up.” 

“Give herself up?” cried Robert. “She said that 
to you? For what crime?” 

“For perjury. Mme. de Cloziers failed in this con- 
dition imposed upon a witness: to tell the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth.” 

The baron started, his eyes sparkled. 

“But the unhappy woman does not know what re- 
sponsibility she will assume; she does not know that 
she runs the risk of being condemned?” 


130 


LITTLE MAN 


“She knows it, I have taken pains to impress it 
upon her.” 

“And, notwithstanding, she perseveres in her 
resolution?” 

“It is that which urges her on. Yesterday, she said 
to me with an adorable smile: 

“‘Do you not see, sir, that it is my only means of 
expiation? When I shall have been justly imprisoned, 
I shall be purified, cleansed, and Robert will not re- 
proacfi me for having suffered alone.’” 

The baron’s head was bowed. 

“Poor woman!” he sighed involuntarily. 

And the lawyer saw a tear fall from the prisoner’s 
eyelashes upon the floor, where it made a round 
spot in the dust. 

He eagerly seized that opportunity. 

“Yes, poor woman 1 For she suffers as much at this 
time as you, more than you, I should say, — for you 
are at peace with your conscience. Daily she endures 
remorse, and to her sorrow is added the intolerable 
thought of being the cause of yours.” 

Robert struggled in vain against the emotion which 
possessed him. 

“My friend,” he exclaimed, “I do not desire that 
expiation, I refuse that reparation. My liberty would 
cost me too dear at that price.” 

“It is, however, the only means of obtaining it 1” 

“Well, I will not obtain it, that is all.” 

“And — why that resistance on your part, why that 
refusal to acquiesce?” 


LITTLE MAN 


I3I 

A twofold reason, which was not the true one, 
rose to de Cloziers’ lips: 

^‘Because my wife would have decidedly the best 
role; because, again, it would be necessary to re- 
awaken the attention of the public, to renew and to 
augment the scandal of that horrible affair, and I do 
not desire that/’ 

The true reason did more honor to his generosity. 

As the lawyer did not reply and looked at him in 
silence, he could not conceal his emotion. In spite of 
him his heart leaped for joy; the truth escaped him. 

“No, no, my friend, I do not wish that. I reject 
that means as I refused her appearance at the Court 
of Assizes. It is sufficient that she repents. I do not 
want her to suffer, to undergo the comments, the 
sneers, the outrages and insulting glances of the 
masses. Yes, I confess it, I love and shall always 
love her! I am jealous of her honor, jealous of her 
beauty. Let her abandon me and save herself; let 
her remain respected. That is all my vengeance. I 
desire no other.” 

That effort seemed to have exhausted him. 

Suddenly his strength abandoned him; he tottered. 
The lawyer caught him in his arms and laid him on 
the bed. He summoned the guard, and said to him: 

“See that this is handed to the director. This 
man should be admitted to the infirmary at once. I 
fear a serious illness.” 

Jean Levasseur was alarmed. 


132 


LITTLE MAN 


He questioned the doctor. 

“Sir,” replied the latter, “by to-morrow morning 
either typhus fever or meningitis will have developed.” 


VII 


That was terrible news which the lawyer bore to 
Mathilde de Cloziers. 

The unhappy woman was at first stunned. 

All her projects, all her efforts were momentarily 
suspended. Had death come to render her repentance 
useless ? 

Oh, her expiation was now indeed severe! 

Returning home, she was prostrated for some time 
by despair. Moans alone escaped her lips. Kneel- 
'ing upon her prie-dieu, tearfully, she almost rebuked 
her Supreme Judge. 

“Lord! Lord!” she moaned, “it is too much, this 
time! Shall you refuse me the boon of repenting.^ You 
have not the right, my God, for you very well know 
that the culprit is not the man who is suffering, the 
victim of an unjust sentence. You very well know 
that he will die of despair, at the hour when I, the 
criminal, wish to try to save him !” 

Those complaints eased her heart. Her energy 
reawakened. 

No, that was impossible! God would not become 
the accomplice of human error! 

She hastened to the prison; she made anxious in- 
quiries. She learned there that the sick man had not 
133 


134 


LITTLE MAN 


been conscious since the preceding day: that in his 
delirium he uttered words, disconnected and .inco- 
herent. 

She returned the following day, the next and the 
next. 

She received different reports. The doctors were 
not without hope yet. One of the prime causes of 
their hope was the nature of the malady. Instead of 
meningitis, typhoid fever had set in. 

Certainly, the chances were not very great, but 
there was still a chance. 

With spinal fever, death occurred nine times out 
of ten, while in case of recovery there was the fear 
of insanity or idiocy. With typhus, there were five 
chances in favor of recovery, if the illness did not 
assume a malarial form. 

Mathilde went away somewhat reassured. 

Then she hastened to M. Levasseur to consult him. 

“Would they not permit me at least to nurse my 
husband?” 

The lawyer shook his head. ' 

He feared that the rules of the prison were inflex- 
ible. 

Such a favor had frequently been refused to the 
families of prisoners as noble as Baron de Cloziers. 
He did not think they would make any difference 
with regard to the young wife. Moreover, another 
obstacle arose: Would not the physicians object to 
her presence? Would not the sight of her have a bad 


LITTLE MAN 


135 


effect upon the patient if only on account of the ex- 
citement? And, Mathilde, amid her sobs, repeated: 

‘‘Oh, M. Levasseur, I do him harm? Is it possible? 
Do you not know that one can save by the strength 
of one’s love those one loves?’’ 

He replied: 

“Try; make your request. Perhaps where others 
have failed, you may succeed.” 

She no longer heard him. 

An hour later, she was at the director’s. The latter 
could not assume the responsibility of such a grave 
question. He sent the petitioner to the Governor- 
General of the prisons. 

There she was told that by the aid of influence 
he might succeed in having the rule set aside for her. 

But what influence could she obtain? 

Grief and love are ingenious. Mme. de Cloziers 
did not seek any means: she went directly to the 
surest. She sought an audience of the noble and 
generous woman, who, from the presidential chair, 
showered upon the humble and suffering, the treas- 
ures of her charities. 

She was received kindly. And, notwithstand- 
ing everything the decision had cost her to make, 
Mathilde had an ingenious idea: 

“Madame,” she cried, “would they not admit an 
extra nurse for my husband. 

The plan succeeded. Two hours later, Mathilde 
de Cloziers delivered to the director of Mazas a letter 
from the director-general. 


136 


LITTLE MAN 


The former, rising from his chair, after having 
bowed respectfully to the young woman, said to her: 

“Come, madame. You must don the uniform worn 
by the nurses. In the interest of the patient, that 
disguise will be an advantage. Let me assure you 
that no woman will be more respected than you.’^ 

It was thus that the baroness took her place at her 
husband’s bedside in the gray gown and white cap of 
a nurse. As a precautionary measure she arranged 
her hair differently. But those who saw her disguised 
thus could not help admiring the superb beauty 
which she tried to hide. 

Mathilde commenced a new life, filled with an- 
guish, but also with ineffable consolation. 

Only the physician had been initiated into the 
secret. By special permission of the director, Mathilde 
had a cot placed in the room where Robert lay. 

And, to see the incomparable wife, without the 
least care for herself, by the side of the beloved pa- 
tient whom she nursed so assiduously, no one would 
have suspected that the cause of such attention was 
a reparation, that the devoted woman had been faith- 
less and guilty of perjury. 

On the contrary she was pitied. She was the wife 
whom that miserable Baron de Cloziers had so greatly 
injured, upon whom he had tried to cast suspicion! 

Faithful to the programme mapped out for her by 
Levasseur, Mathilde was careful not to enlighten on 
that point the few persons who approached her. An 


LITTLE MAN 


137 


imprudence might have compromised all, have put 
upon his guard the unknown purloiner of the thirty 
thousand francs and the three bonds. For he must 
be found! 

One morning, his visit paid, the doctor said to the 
young woman: “Rejoice, madame. The fever has 
abated; the crisis, properly speaking, is past. But he 
requires a great deal of care, for, in this terrible mal- 
ady, convalescence requires as much precaution as 
the period of fever. 

“God be praised,^’ she cried, clasping her hands 
with fervor, “and may he reward you for the care 
you have taken of my husband.’^ 

“It is you, madame, whom he should reward, mur- 
mured the doctor with emotion. “You might say, 
indeed, that you have restored your husband’s health. 

This cry escaped her: 

“Might it be permitted me to also give him liberty 
and honor. 

That was the only allusion she made to the terrible 
drama. 

Her life in the prison became extremely hard. 

Up to that time, indeed, the intensity of the fever 
had kept the prisoner in a paralyzing stupor. Delir- 
ium had not left him. And in its paroxysms, the 
sick man, constantly living over the past, had re- 
peated the details of the murder, the trial, and so 
forth. From among the disconnected words which 
passed his lips> Mathilde, in tears, could distinguish 
now appeals, now maledictions. 


138 


LITTLE MAN 


At times, Robert sat up in bed, his eyes opened 
wide, his pupils dilated. He extended his arms and 
cried hoarsely: “There! There! Together! Both of 
them! There they are ! He is embracing her! Their 
lips meet.” 

And suddenly a burst of laughter, of mad laughter, 
shook his frame. 

“Ha, ha! It is over! He will hold her no more ! He 
will embrace her no more! I have killed him! He is 
dead! She is mine!” 

Then he sank back exhausted, and lay for hours 
motionless, while his miserable wife, as she applied 
ice to his heated brow, trembled with fear lest he 
might die thus. 

Then, again, on the contrary, his eyes would light 
up with real joy, he would clasp his hands and mur- 
mur: 

^“Mathilde; Ah! You have returned.? You will not 
leave me again, will you.? The lawyer told me — Ah, 

, dearly beloved! if you knew how I have suffered! If 
•you knew how happy I am now !” 

That bitter period lasted two weeKS, two weeks 
during which the baroness had suffered torment. 

Robert was now better. The immediate danger 
was over. Only care was required. At any instant 
reason might return to the exhausted brain. 

He must not recognize her voice, for a sudden shock 
was to be avoided. 

His wife’s task became exceedingly difficult. 


At times Robert sat up in bed, his eyes opened wide, his pupils dilated. 


I 

T5 

% 


GO 



> 








LITTLE MAN 


139 


And yet she could not resolve to leaye him before 
he was entirely out of danger. Who could take her 
place, who could show him the attention with which 
love inspired her.^^ 

‘‘Madame,’’ counseled the young lawyer, “you 
have done more than your duty, and everyone honors 
you for it. Now, remember that a relapse would be 
disastrous, and that it only requires the slightest 
emotion to provoke that relapse. I beseech of you, 
overcome your feelings and only allow yourself to be 
guided by reason. It is for the good of the patient — 
for his good,” he repeated, glancing significantly at 
Mathilde. 

She started. Had Jean Levasseur discovered some 
means in which he wished her to engage.^ 

“Very well, sir, I will go to-morrow. But, first of 
all, I must myself choose the nurse to replace me. 
The director has accorded me permission to do so.” 

Mathilde herself felt it imperative that she should 
leave as soon as possible. Once during the day, 
although she was careful to keep in the background, 
and to keep the curtains drawn, she saw the sick 
man’s eyes fixed curiously upon her. 

Her precautions redoubled. 

The nurse who succeeded Mathilde was young and 
intelligent, she promised Mme. de Cloziers to watch 
the patient with scrupulous attention and not to lose 
sight of him a single instant. 

Reassured on that score, the baroness prepared to 


140 


LITTLE MAN 


leave the prison where she had spent almost a month, 
a month at once sad and comforting. 

But in order to leave, she was obliged to put on 
her other dress and to doff the uniform of a nurse, 
which had become dear to her. As she changed her 
garments, her heart contracted. Tears filled her eyes, 
and^ the desire arose within her to gaze once more 
upon the emaciated face of the sick man. 

She had left him asleep. She supposed that that 
slumber would continue some time and that she could, 
without any harm, bid him farewell. 

Softly, on tiptoe, she entered the room, in which 
her substitute was preparing potions and teas. She 
paused beside the bed and looked at her husband a 
long time. 

She could not control her emotion. The desire 
possessed her to draw nearer, to imprint a kiss upon 
that livid brow. She advanced toward the cot, bent 
over the pillow upon which his head lay so heavily, 
and into her caress she put all the fervor of her soul. 

Robert's brow was hot; a tear fell from his wife’s 
lashes upon his hair. At the same time, at the con- 
tact of those fresh and humid lips, the baron awoke. 
His eyes opened heavily. Mathilde retreated, wrap- 
ping herself in the drapery of the bed. 

Robert apparently was awaking from a pleasant 
dream, for a smile played about his lips, as he said: 

^‘Mathilde, my Mathilde, where are you 

The baroness did not stir. She held her breath. 


LITTLE MAN 


I41 

The sick man resumed, but with a distressed ac- 
cent; 

“Ah! Another dream! Always delirium! And yet 
this time I thought that you were there near me. I 
almost felt the sweetness of a kiss upon my brow ! 
Oh! my poor head! It has suffered so much!” 

He lay back upon his pillow and closed his eyes. 

The baroness then left the shelter of the curtains 
and reached the door. 

But there, actuated by an impulse of tenderness, 
she turned. She wished, by a glance, to take leave 
of the prisoner. 

As if moved by a spring, by some magnetic attrac- 
tion, he turned upon his pillow. He opened his eyes. 

He saw the young woman erect in the doorway. 

The light entering from the next room fell upon 
her. 

The sick man sat up in bed. 

He extended both hands towards the vision, and, 
again the beloved name rose to his trembling lips: 

“Mathilde! Mathilde!” 

But already the vision had vanished. 

There was in its place only the nurse, who ap- 
proached him as he awoke. 

Behind her, a man entered, who with a smile 
offered his hand to Baron de Cloziers. 

“You, Levasseur!” cried Robert. “Thanks for com- 
ing to see me.” 

And, casting a terrified glance around him, he 
asked: 


142 


LITTLE MAN 


“But — where am I? What has happened? Have I 
been ill?” 

“Yes,” replied the lawyer, “very ill. But, fortu- 
nately, you are now out of danger.” 

Several times the baron passed his hand over his 
brow and rubbed his eyes, in order to assure himself 
that he was not dreaming. 

Then he murmured: 

“Yes, yes! I have had a fever. I have been delir- 
ious, no doubt. See,” said he, seizing the lawyer’s 
hand, “would you believe that just now, as you 
entered, I thought I saw in the embrasure of that 
door — ” 

“Who?” asked the lawyer, feigning surprise. 

“Mathilde,” sighed the unhappy man. 

And he sank back upon the pillow with a groan. 

“Ah, yes! That is it! I had a fever, — I was dream- 
ing!” 


VIII 


Scarcely had she returned home, than Mme. de 
Cloziers experienced a sensation of depression which 
she could not define. She had lost a month’s time. 

Ah! undoubtedly she had not lost it. She had done 
her duty, but under another form. Still it was none 
the less true that the time spent by her in prison, at 
her dying husband’s bedside, was valuable time which 
she could not regain. 

That month the unknown thief would have to profit 
by. Mathilde was depressed for several hours. 

It was not the difficulty of her enterprise which 
helped to discourage her thus. The feeling awakened 
in her by the sight of her husband ill and in prison 
was extremely bitter. 

For it was by that bed of suffering that she had 
learned to read her own heart and to gauge the ten- 
derness felt by her for Robert. 

Ah, yes, she loved him now with all her soul. She 
loved him and she knew it. And the remenibranee of 
her error was so much more difficult to bear. 

Suddenly, on pressing her lips to her husband^s 
brow, she had become aware of her own unworthi- 
ness. It had seemed to her as if she had not the 
right to bestow upon him that caress. 

14B 


144 


LITTLE MAN 


Fortunately, her weakness was not of long dura- 
tion. Mathilde realized that God had been good in 
permitting her to fulfill her wifely duty at her husband’s 
bedside. She told herself that her first act of devo- 
tion was not the beginning of her expiation, since she 
had been happy in it, but the commencement of par- 
don itself. 

With that comforting thought all her energy re- 
turned. 

She rose inspired with fresh ardor. 

She recalled the glance cast upon her by Levasseur 
as he asked her to leave the prison, — and also his 
enigmatical words: 

“It is for his good, — for his good.” 

At any price she must know their meaning. 

She did not defer her visit to the advocate. 

Although night was approaching, she proceeded at 
once to his house. 

Levasseur had anticipated that visit ; he was await- 
ing her. First of all, he related to the young wo- 
man his interview with Robert, how he at the moment 
of his entrance told him of the vision in which he fan- 
cied he saw Mathilde on the threshold. 

“Poor Robert!” murmured the baroness, bursting 
into tears. 

“Do not weep, madame,” resumed the lawyer. 
“Your conduct towards your husband has already re- 
paired all your wrongs. Already, thanks to your 
care, which God blessed, M. de Cloziers is out of 


LITTLE MAN 1 45 

danger. One might say he owes his life to you. He 
will owe you honor as well.^^ 

“Ah, sir,’^ she cried, “do you speak the truth?’^ 

“Yes, madame, for it seems to me that circum- 
stances will second your noble design. This morn- 
ing, on asking you to leave the prison in which your 
presence was no longer necessary, — what did I say 
to you. ^ That it might endanger him, — I especially 
wished to tell you of good news, of the first ray of 
hope.’^ 

“God is good!*’ murmured Mathilde with fervor. 

“This is the news: The Secretary of the Navy has 
received news of the explorer Reval 1” 

“Ah!” 

“M. Reval was on the Niger at the time of the 
opening of the case. He has been traced on his 
march toward the south, and they think that a gov- 
ernment form might reach him, and that we might 
obtain his deposition, which would be of the greatest 
importance to us.” 

“Indeed,” said Mathilde, “that circumstance is ab- 
solutely providential. It is to be hoped that M. Reval 
can be reached thus; if it were necessary that I 
should undertake such a journey, I should not hesi- 
tate, sir, remember, to go myself to those unknown 
regions.” 

“I know that you would have the courage, madame. 
But, in my eyes, several reasons prevent that act of 
heroism on your part.” 


146 


LITTLE MAN 


“What are those reasons?” 

“The first is that you are a woman.” 

“I would disguise myself as a man.” 

“No doubt. But one cannot change one’s sex 
with one’s costume. Africa has nothing in common 
with civilized countries. How could you face, alone 
and without a guide, regions almost unexplored, 
inhabited by savage tribes, peopled with wild beasts 
and the seat of more terrible diseases? No, do you 
see, it cannot be thought of; at the most could such 
a thing happen if M. Reval were to approach the 
coast and meet you in some town.” 

“Might not that be?” 

“It might, madame, but, independent of the reasons 
I have just told you, there are others which seem to 
me to demand your presence in Paris.” 

“What are they, sir?” 

“If you were gone, who would aid in the researches 
we have agreed to make in common?” 

“Are you not sufficient for that task, sir?” 

“Madame,” replied the lawyer, “I might allege that 
my occupations would not leave me the necessary 
time. And I would tell the truth. But I prefer not 
to recur to that selfish excuse. From all points of 
view, you are more fitted for the work of investiga- 
tion.” 

Mathilde, in whom the news of the re-appearance 
of Reval had aroused the desire for a voyage to 
Africa, seemed scarcely convinced by the lawyer’s 
arguments. 


LITTLE MAN 


147 


She asked skeptically: 

“May I know those ‘points of view?' '' 

“Assuredly, madame, and I do not doubt that you 
will share my opinion. Suppose that I, or someone 
else, a person not interested in the case, were to en- 
gage in researches, that person would not fail to at- 
tract attention, and, unless we have recourse to the 
good offices of a detective, I think that the going to 
and fro which those researches call for, will put upon 
his guard the unknown thief whose personality we are 
trying to discover.'' 

“But will it not be the same in my case?" 

“No, for the thief would be persuaded, like the 
public, that publicly accused, that is to say outraged, 
by your husband, you bear him malice for that in- 
sult. The last being of whom one would think of be- 
waring, would therefore be yourself." 

“You are right, sir, and I submit to your wisdom. 
Once more I place myself under your counsel and 
your direction. Permit me then to ask you again in 
what manner I shall proceed." 

The lawyer reflected several seconds. 

“Indeed," said he, “I do not see any particular 
method to follow. I think, however, that you should 
preserve in public your present air. Indeed, you re- 
semble a widow, and, excuse me for the comparison, 
a widow who would rospect the legal delay before 
entering upon a second marriage." 

“What do you mean, sir?" asked the baroness, 
offended in spite of herself at that language. 


148 


LITTLE MAN 


“This is not the time for pleasantry, madame, I 
know,^^ said Levasseur gravely; “I will explain myself. 
A widow who desires to marry again shows that her 
husband has not left regret in her heart. She there- 
fore accepts the consolation offered her. But, if we 
adhere to the facts of the case, you have no cause to 
weep for your husband. So it is very easy for you to 
feign indifference, and indifference, I repeat, is indis- 
pensable, if you wish to learn what is going on out- 
side. Moreover, be pleased to remark,” he added 
with a smile, “that my comparison is not so out of 
place as it seems to be. You are only indeed a widow 
for the time being, and consequently ready to re- 
marry.” 

“How is that, sir.^” 

“No doubt when our work is accomplished, you 
will resume the life which was interrupted by the side 
of M. de Cloziers.” 

Mathilde could not restrain a smile at that remark. 

“It is agreed then,” she said, “that I remain in 
Paris, that I there observe the reserve of a widow 
who desires a second marriage.^ Do I understand 
aright.^ Yes.^ In that case, I have simply to ask you: 
And afterwards.^” 

“Afterwards.!^ That is precisely where our roles 
begin, with all the latitude necessary of genius and 
talent. While I revise for my personal use, word for 
word, all the testimonies of the Court of Assizes, you 
have, for your special mission, to study the witnesses 


LITTLE MAN 


149 


themselves, to talk to them, to revisit the places, 
and, as happens in such cases, to hear what is said 
after the termination of a trial has loosened the 
tongues. 

‘‘That means,” said Mme. de Cloziers, “that I must 
go hither and thither, question, examine — in a word, 
obtain explanations, provoke confidences, gather to- 
gether all the rumors, all the reports, and make of 
them, if possible, a concordant whole.” 

“You repeat my thoughts admirably, madame.” 

The young woman sighed. 

“Alas, that is a task for which I am not prepared! 
But that does not matter! The object I have in view 
is such that I must not neglect any means, any occa- 
sion. I will do as you point out, sir.” 

She took leave of Levasseur, resolved not to allow 
herself to be stopped by uncertainties. Since cir- 
cumstances dictated to the young advocate such a step 
to follow, it must be the best. Mathilde no longer 
hesitated, but spent part of the night in forming her 
plan. 

As Levasseur had advised, she studied the deposi- 
tions of the witnesses, trying to obtain from them 
some more precise idea of the character, of the ap- 
pearance of the personages, their state of mind before 
as well as after the trial. 

It was a difficult task, on account of its delicacy. 

How, indeed, could she by the aid of such material 
penetrate the mind and heart of a human being.^ 


LITTLE MAN 


ISO 

Charles Leflot’s testimony was the first she read. 
It seemed to her as if the boy had not told all he 
could have told, and that if the president of the As- 
sizes had urged him, he would have made a more 
complete confession. 

This idea rose in her mind and rapidly took shape: 

Suppose Charles Leflot would make a confidant of 
her.^ 

On looking through some papers, she found the ad- 
dress of ‘‘P’tit Homme.” He still lived on Rue Spon- 
tini; the count’s heirs permitted him to do so prior 
to the sale of the house and its furniture. 

Should she write him to come, to see her.? No! 
That would be to tell him too soon who she was; 
moreover, he might not come. 

She preferred to go to see him, to speak with him, 
even in the home of the — dead. 

The following day, at nine o’clock in the morning, 
the baroness put her project into execution. 

She descended to the street, stopped a cab, and 
gave its driver the name and number of Rue Spontini. 
The fiacre rolled rapidly along and bore her to her 
destination. 

She rang the bell. 

The sound of footsteps was heard in the corridor, 
and Mathilde, whose bosom heaved violently, recalled 
that other visit, the only one she had paid to that 
fatal spot. 

She remembered that the count himself had admit- 


LITTLE MAN I5I 

ted her. Terror seized her; she drew back; she was 
about to fly. 

There was no longer time. The door creaked. 
Charles Leflot appeared. Sadly, ^T’tit Homme’^ lived 
in the deserted house in which everything reminded 
him of his beloved master. 

Controlling her emotion, the baroness asked to see 
the house which, she said, she thought of buying. But 
as Charles wished to escort her, to guide her, she 
passed before him, crossed the hall, ascended the 
staircase without hesitation, and paused before the 
portiere which separated the landing from the boudoir. 

The boy followed her stunned. 

What did the woman want who entered so uncere- 
moniously into that house of mourning His features 
expressed distrust, a sort of morose anger. * 

Mathilde understood, by intuition, that she must 
not allow him the time to compose himself, that she 
should at once take advantage of that confusion by 
means of which she might surprise the boy’s secret. 
And brusquely she uttered these words: 

“It is here the count was in the habit of passing 
his time. Between the windows, a table, divans all 
around, a small piece of furniture before the fire- 
place to the left, the bedroom facing it.’^ 

“You have been here before!’^ exclaimed Charles 
in surprise. 

“Yes, once.” 

“When.?” 


152 


LITTLE MAN 


She did not reply, she raised the portiere, entered, 
looked about her an instant, then, in an agitated 
voice, pointing with her finger to various places: 

“He was there, erect, when that ball struck him. 
He turned, he fell, here, in the center — his head to- 
wards the window.’^ 

“That is it exactly! Were you withhim?^’ 

“Yes!^^ 

“Ah, I knew that he expected a lady!^^ he cried. 

A smile of triumph lighted up Mathilde’s features. 

She had been awaiting that cry. 

Delighted to find that he had not been mistaken, 
the boy betrayed himself. 

She immediately took advantage of that first suc- 
cess. 

“If you know that he expected — a lady, why did 
you not tell the judge so, the jurors?” 

He lowered his head without replying. 

She continued: 

“Why did you not speak before of the letter he re- 
ceived that day ? It came by post. It was delivered 
to you. You remember it, do you not? A large 
square envelope, thick paper, a large handwriting. 
Did you see it ?” 

“Yes, yes, I saw it!” 

He glanced at the mantel-piece upon which he had 
placed the letter. 

“Then,” said she persistently, “why did you say 
nothing?” 


LITTLE MAN I 53 

Suddenly he turned and crossing his arms upon his 
breast, asked: 

“And you? Why did you not tell the judges and 
the jury that you had written the letter? Why did 
you not say that you were here when they killed my 
master?” 

“Because I wanted his murderer to be severely 
punished. I had sworn to avenge Gontran de Pla- 
tere!” 

“Ah, you had sworn! That is well! Then you 
loved him ? Then I am no longer afraid of you. You 
will not betray me. And then, the affair is ended, 
the assassin is condemned. I can speak. If I did 
not tell the judges the whole truth — all that I knew 
— it was for the same reason that you did not, the 
better to avenge my master.” 

“The better to avenge him. I do not understand. 
You then knew.” 

“Yes, I knew — that a husband is not condemned 
when he kills his wife’s lover.” 

“Who told you that?” 

“She.” 

“Who is she?” 

“Mile, de Lange.” 

“Ah!” 

Then, suddenly, struck by a second ray of light: 

“You both swore that you arrived here together, 
at half-past seven?” 

“Yes, aijd we found my master — where you said,” 


154 


LITTLE MAN 


“And how was the commissioner informed of it? 
Who went in search of him?” 

«J » 

“Was it your own suggestion?” 

No, I did not think of it, I was too deeply grieved. 
She sent me.” 

“And she. remained here alone in this room?” 

“Yes, she even said: ‘I am not afraid of the dead. ’” 

“In what time did you return with the commis- 
sioner?’.’ 

“In about half an hour.” 

After a short pause, touching Charles Leflot’s 
shoulder, she said: 

“I now understand why Mile, de Lange recom- 
mended you to maintain silence.” 

“Why.?” 

“Because if you had spoken, they would have seen, 
that the meeting was one of lovers— that instead of 
suspecting Baron de Cloziers of theft, as they have 
done, they would have suspected Mile, de Lange.” 

“Then you think it was she!” 

“Yes, and you?” 

“I have too — for some time. But nothing can be 
done — since the other was condemned yesterday.” 

Does that satisfy your vengeance? The less guilty 
of the two has been punished. A feeling of anger. 
A moment of madness. When you are older, you 
will understand and you will pardon. But she, who, 
left alone with a corpse, thought only of despoiling it , 


LITTLE MAN 


155 


of thieving! Do you see — bending over that unfort- 
unate man, turning him over to see if he had money 
on him, fumbling in his pockets with the fear of his 
rising and calling out: ‘Thief! Thief! Wretch! 
Wretch L’ 

“Oh, yes, wretch!” 

“Well, will you aid me in punishing that wretch ? 
Do you wish your master to be entirely avenged?” 

“Yes, yes, I do!” 

Mathilde needed to say no more, 

P’tit Homme drew himself up to his full height. 
He seemed tall beneath that inspiration, and his 
voice assumed a strong accent, as he repeated: 

“Yes, yes, I do!” 

The baroness took his hand. 

“Listen, my child, for such an act as that, our 
combined efforts will not be too much. We must not 
arouse that woman’s suspicions, I do not bid you 
come to my house. Your presence might be remarked 
upon. But go to-morrow at two o’clock to Bois-de- 
Boulogne, near the Jardin d’Acclimafation. We can 
talk as we saunter along one of the deserted streets 
of Neuilly and I will tell you what we both have to 
do.” 

The boy promised; he even emphasized his prom- 
ise with an oath. 

“I will be there, madame, and I swear to you that 
if you give up your project, I will accomplish it 
alone.” 


IS6 


LITTLE MAN 


^^Make yourself easy/’ replied Mathilde with a pe- 
culiar smile, am more interested than you.” 

If ever the heart of woman was filled with joy, 
that of Baroness de Cloziers assuredly was on the 
conclusion of that interview with Count de Platere’s 
servant. 

She was in haste to leave the house polluted by such 
a bloody deed. She had only returned there in 
search of the truth. She had found it. The question 
now was to prove it abroad. 

Mathilde had received from God too many marks 
of his favor, to doubt the result of her undertaking — 
moreover, the noble thought which guided her, illu- 
minated her with its rays, and she had already been 
regenerated by her devotion at her husband’s bed- 
side. Would she not complete her work by sacrific- 
ing her own consideration for the baron’s deliver- 
ance? 

The suffering she had undergone in the course of 
that interview with Charles Leflot would count largely 
in her expiation. For on again seeing those rooms, 
the scene of that horrible drama, the young woman 
for an instant feared she would falter. Nothing had 
been changed in their arrangement. The boy had 
respected the manner in which his master had placed 
everything. 

Certainly Mathilde had spoken the truth in affirm- 
ing to Levasseur that she did not love the count/that 


LITTLE MAN 


IS7 

she had been over-excited. Never had she been more 
conscious of it than at that moment when she lived 
over again the terrible moments of her error, so few 
in themselves, so serious in their results. 

She had not loved him, and the remembrance of 
the dead had only awakened within her great pity for 
the destiny of that young man blasted in the prime 
of youth and manhood. 

More bitter, more heart-rending remorse had rav- 
aged Mathilde's soul by recalling to her the fact that 
her weakness of a moment had been the sole cause of 
that catastrophe with such dire consequences: the 
death of a lover, the dishonor and imprisonment of a 
husband. And more urgent still did it seem to her 
to expiate her crime. 

She had vowed to make the sacrifice. She would 
accomplish her task without faltering. 

She returned home therefore filled with holy, 
though sad joy, and hastened later on to M. Levas- 
seur’s to tell him of the first result of her researches. 

The lawyer congratulated her warmly on her cour- 
age, then, rubbing his hands, he said: — 

Bring the boy to me to-morrow. If he perjures 
himself I can testify to it.’’ 


IX 


The following day as the clock struck the hour, 
Charles Leflot awaited Baroness de Cloziers at the 
gate of the Jardin d’Acclimatation. 

She was several minutes late. 

She advanced to him and extending her hand with 
a familiarity full of condescension, she said: 

‘T have thought it over, my boy; it would be im- 
possible for us to converse comfortably in the street. 
I shall therefore take you with me. It will be easier 
for us to talk in a safe place.” 

As she spoke, the young woman expressed the idea 
formulated by Levasseur on the preceding day. 

P’tit Homme offered no opposition to that change 
of plan, — a proof as well that his resolution was firm, 
and that whatever line of conduct was to be followed, 
he only desired oile end — vengeance.. 

Mathilde took a carriage at the gate of the Bois and 
bade the coachman drive to Boulevard Saint-Michel. 

Very docile, Leflot still felt a certain emotion when 
in the presence of M. Levasseur. 

‘^Ah, madame,” he exclaimed ingenuously, “I only 
spoke for your ears!” 

Before the baroness could reply, the lawyer inter- 
posed. 


158 


LITTLE MAN 


159 


“You are new only speaking for madame, my boy. 
I do not count. 

“Eh.J^ — You are, nevertheless, the defender of the 
other, of him whom they condemned.?’’ 

“Undoubtedly. In what way does that annoy you 

“It annoys me because something is certainly be- 
ing hidden from me. If you do not count, why have 
I been brought hither.?” 

Levasseur fixed his shrewd eyes upon the boy's 
clear ones. 

“You will understand. It is precisely because I 
was the defender of the other one that I can only 
figure as a counselor and friend.” 

“Then it is to benefit him.?” 

“Naturally.” 

Charles Leflot glanced suspiciously at Mathilde. 

“But I thought that madame did not love her hus- 
band, that she loved my master, and that it was for 
that reason she wished to avenge him, that she had 
caused the condemnation of the assassin.” 

It was now the baroness’ turn to speak. 

She advanced to the boy, and, putting her gloved 
hand upon his brow, she gently bent his head back, 
thus forcing him to raise his eyes to hers. 

“Look at me, my child, and above all listen to me. 
We, you and I, have both made a great mistake.” 

“A great mistake,” he interrupted in surprise, 
although his conscience for some time had vaguely 
reproached him. 


i6o 


LITTLE MAN 


“A great mistake/^ repeated Mathilde firmly, 
“almost a crime. We both gave false testimony be- 
fore the judge; you, in not telling the whole truth, I, 
in not telling the truth at all.’^ 

“Ah!’’ murmured the boy, whose lashes brushed 
his flushed cheeks. 

Mathilde continued: 

“And by that false testimony, by that lie, we have 
condemned an innocent man.” 

Here, P’tit Homme’s logic protested. 

“He is not innocent, madame, since it was he who 
killed my master. He confessed it.” 

“Yes,” returned the baroness with emphasis, “he 
killed him, because he had the right to do so. 
You understand: the right ; the law gives it to him. 
The guilty ones were: myself, first, who failed in my 
duties; your master, who wished to lead astray an- 
other’s wife.” 

Charles Leflot bent his head, which Mathilde no 
longer held. 

It was evident that contradictory influences were 
at work within him. 

Finally, he murmured in a strong voice: 

“You have taken time to find that out, madame. 
Why did you not tell it to the judges.^” 

“Because I was still more guilty, because I was 
mad! But that matters not, my child! To-day, I detest 
my fault, I wish to repair it. They condemned my 
husband as an assassin and a thief,* while he was only 


LITTLE MAN 


i6i 


an outraged man claiming justice. Your testimony 
and mine are required in order to give him honor and 
liberty, and you know who the thief is better than 
anyone.” 

The boy started. 

“You would not,” continued the baroness, “cease 
being an honest man by contributing towards pro- 
longing an injustice, would you.?” 

“Oh, no, madame!” replied P’tit Homme quickly. 

“In that case, you will adhere to your vow of yes- 
terday, for you swore that if I did not keep my 
promise, you would remain faithful to yours. Did 
you not.?” 

“I did,” said Leflot solemnly. 

Then raising his head he asked: 

“If, madame, you have committed so grave an 
error they will put you also in prison .?” 

“Perhaps. But I shall do. my duty none the less.” 

“Will they put me there too.?” 

Jean Levasseur hastened to cut short that danger- 
ous dialogue. 

“Reassure yourself, my boy. Not only can they 
do nothing to you, they will even compliment you on 
your fidelity.” 

The servant drew a long breath. 

It was evident that in raising that weight from his 
breast, the advocate rendered the exercise of his 
mind easier and freer. 

Very soon, Charles Leflot exclaimed: 


LITTLE MAN 


162 

‘^Well, sir, in that case, I am ready to do as you 
wish.’’ 

‘‘All right, my boy. Now there only remains for 
us to decide what we will do. Let us proceed by 
rule and begin at the beginning.” 

P’tit Homme did not experience any embarrass- 
ment. He glanced at the lawyer who had settled 
himself conveniently in the easy-chair. 

“Let me see,” resumed Levasseur, whose formal 
manner greatly impressed the boy, “let me see, then 
it is Mile, de Lange who is the thief 

“I did not say that,” cried the boy. “The real 
truth is, that I know nothing.” 

“But you suspect it, do you not.?”’ 

“The real truth is, that I have always thought so.” 

“Very well, my boy. But unfortunately, in law a 
suspicion is not enough, one must be sure, absolutely 
sure of what one affirms!” 

“But then, sir — ” 

“Then we must find some means of acquiring that 
certainty.” 

“Can I do that.?”’ 

M. Levasseur nodded his head very slowly. 

“Listen. There is one infallible means. Only it 
is necessary that you determine to follow the plan 
which I am going to indicate to you.” 

“I have told you that I am ready.” 

'‘You must watch yourself, you must not let any- 
one guess. You are sensible.” 


LITTLE MAN 


163 


“I believe so.” 

“Moreover, you are adroit, gentle, amiable, you 
please people.” 

“I have been told so several times.” 

“You have all the requisite qualities; this is what 
you must do.” 

“I am listening, sir.” 

“You are not in any situation, are you?” 

“For the time being, yes. I am taking care of my 
poor master’s house.” 

“You would not mind earning some money?” 

“Sir, I never refuse that.” 

“Well, my friend, I have found you a place — seri- 
ously. Will you take it?” 

“But, sir,” replied the boy in astonishment, “I do 
not see how that agrees with — ” 

“You are in a hurry, my little man,” said Levas- 
seur laughing. “But .you are right. The position I 
offer you is with Mile, de Lange.” 

Charles Leflot opened his eyes. 

“Mile. Gabrielle? Why — she does not need me.” 

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders without abating 
that superb phlegm which called forth so much respect 
in his youthful interlocutor. 

“Ah, knave, who has told you that she needs you? 
It is we who need her. But that she may serve us 
it is necessary that some one be near her who knows 
her secrets, — in a word, who can pull her about by 
the nose, as they say.” 


164 


LITTLE MAN 


The servant’s face lighted up. 

“Ah, famous, famous! I understand! Well, one 
might say that you were sly!” 

Then he added: 

“That is to say, I must enter the house of that 
lady whom I am to inspire with confidence, so that 
if she does not tell me all, at least I can divine what 
she does not tell me. Is that it, sir?” 

“That is it, my boy, and — does that suit you?” 

“I think it does! Ah, the wretch, she robbed my 
dead master; she kept me from speaking before 
the judges altogether. I will make her speak, and 
more than she wants to, surely. Since all is decided, 
I must tell you, sir and madame, that it troubled me, 
and that I have had no rest since they condemned the 
poor gentleman as a thief. Do not fear; I will repay 
Gabrielle, and we shall see how she will sing her last 
couplet.” 

“Bravo, my boy,” said Levasseur, clapping his 
hands. “Now, curb your tongue. A word too much 
and all would be lost, you must understand.” 

The boy made one of those gestures with his hand, 
common with the gamins of Paris, and which said 
more than all the speeches could have done. Then 
he took leave of Mathilde and of the lawyer, crying: 

“This is now the end of the week. Monday, I 
think, I shall be the lovely madame’s confidential 
man. Oh! La! La!” 

And he disappeared, laughing merrily. 


LITTLE MAN 1 6 $ 

Left alone, the baroness and Levasseur looked at 
one another. 

“Well,” asked the lawyer, “do you think we have 
taken the right road.?” 

“Dear sir,” replied Mathilde with emotion, “you 
have a mind full of resources. What gratitude do I 
not owe you, already.?” 

And as he gayly repulsed her praises: 

“What can I do more.?” 

“Ah! madame, you have already done a great 
deal. But, since you wish to continue your work, 
it seems to me that your task is all planned. Should 
not you, on your side, take the necessary steps to 
enter directly into relations with M. Lucien Reval .? 
Your role is traced out as well as that of the boy, as 
mine. To work then! God will aid us.” 

Thus was planned the campaign, the order of battle 
to which they were to conform strictly. .From its 
rigorous and intelligent execution success should 
come. 

Mathilde commenced with the second part of the 
programme which the lawyer had traced for her. 

She did not spare herself at all to obtain an ame- 
lioration of the fate of her unfortunate husband. ,It 
was easier for her, for circumstances favored her. 

She learned indeed, several days later, that the 
condemned man would not form one of the convoy 
which was to leave Paris in a few days. The doctor 
had objected to itj the state of the baron s health, 
would not permit of so sudden a removal. 


LITTLE MAN 


1 66 

That was three months of respite for him; it was 
also three months of peace of mind, which the young 
woman hoped to profit by to continue her act of lib- 
eration. 

That period brought her a cruel sorrow. 

She had besought Jean Levasseur to ask her hus- 
band for the favor of an interview. 

“I do not wish,” said she, “for him to know any- 
thing of my presence in the infirmary during his ill- 
ness. He would perhaps think himself bound by some 
sentiment of gratitude, I only wish to owe my par- 
don to his love.” 

Alas! Robert, ignorant of that secret devotion, 
was still the victim of his pride and his resentment. 
To the first overture which the lawyer made to him 
he replied with vehemence; “I pray you, my friend, 
never speak to me of that woman; there is nothing 
more between us. Leave her to her abjection..” 

Such were the words which Levasseur transmitted 
to Mathilde, although with a thousand alterations. 
And she, in her grief, did not rebel. 

She bowed beneath the hand which chastised her 
and moaned; “I have merited it, Lord! You are just 
in all that you do !” 


PART III 


I 

Mile. Gabrielle de Lange had removed. Tvsro 
months had flown since the conclusion of the debates, 
and the young woman had suffered considerably from 
enmii caused by the postponement of her departure 
for the south. From an excess of prudence, she had 
felt, on the one side, deep sorrow, and on the other 
real anxiety as to her future. For the liberality con- 
tained in Gontran de Platere’s will did not affect her. 
The young man was not such a madcap as they 
thought him. He paid well for his pleasure, and he 
did not care to assure himself immortality in the 
memory of the ladies whom he had honored with his 
choice. 

It was not, therefore, the moment for Gabrielle 
de Lange to make use of the money she had so dex- 
terously taken from the corpse of her lover. She had 
exhibited to her friends and acquaintances much dis- 
interested regret, since the count had bequeathed her 
nothing. 

Constrained, in consequence, to defer the journey 
she had agreed to take in his company, until the day 
upon which some new tie, even if fleeting, would fur- 
167 


i68 


LITTLE MAN 


nish her sufficient pretext to go, she had determined 
to transfer her penates to Rue Cardinet, near Rue 
de Prony, and there hired a fine suite of apartments 
at the price of three thousand six hundred francs per 
year. 

Charles Leflot entered Gabrielle de Lange’s serv- 
ice more easily than Mme. de Cloziers had hoped 
he would. The woman had noticed him at Count 
de Platere’s. ‘‘He is useful, she had often said to 
herself. 

She therefore consented to take him into her serv- 
ice, and to make of him, not a common menial, but 
a confidential man; he could open the door, he could 
deliver letters, and write them if necessary. 

Of wages there was no question. Not only would 
he cost her nothing, but the boy, who had seemed to 
her very faithful, very loving, might one day bring 
her something. Indeed, Count de Platere, so un- 
generous in regard to his relations with women, had, 
b}^ his will, left Charles Leflot a small sum which he 
would have when he attained his majority. 

That knowledge caused her to open to the boy her 
hospitality; her schemes were patent to him and the 
antipathy which he felt for her was not lessened 
thereby. 

But he was not there “for his pleasure,’^ and he 
looked forward to the greatest pleasure of his life, to 
entrap the thief when the occasion presented itself. 

With that object, scarcely installed in the house, 


LITTLE MAN 


169 


Charles very easily crept about, searched, scented. 
In a few days, he acquired all the skill of a profes- 
sional spy. There was not a corner of the apartment, 
not an angle of the furniture he had not visited, ex- 
amined. But it was trouble taken in vain ! The 
money was hidden elsewhere, or too well hidden! 

Then the servant determined that he had not taken 
the proper course. It was not the rooms nor the fur- 
niture, — it was the woman herself he must question. 
She must be made to talk. 

But it was no easy matter. If a child is cunning, 
so is a wanton. She has ears and eyes. She is wide- 
awake. 

Charles, however, had a marked advantage over 
her: she did not suspect him. She certainly thought 
him very intelligent for a boy, but it never occurred to 
her that she could be the object of surveillance on the 
part of the child whom she thought rather innocent. 

P’tit Homme was aware of his superiority. 

From the first, Charles Leflot observed scrupu- 
lously his “patroness’^^ habits, the objects and people 
in the house. And his first observation led him to 
believe that Gabrielle de Lange sinned from an ex- 
cess of prudence. 

Indeed, not only did the inconsolable Gabrielle 
observe a stubborn mourning in her toilettes, she 
no longer appeared at the gay reunions of which she 
had formerly been one of the principal ornaments. 

That was not all. She was no longer seen at the 


170 


LITTLE MAN 


theater, at concerts, on the Bois. From among the 
innumerable admirers who followed and reproached 
her for secluding herself, she chose middle-aged men, 
those from whom she knew she had not to fear dis- 
honorable propositions. But, to Gabrielle de Lange, 
all propositions were dishonorable which did not take 
the shape of a number of bank-notes or money. 

Charles Leflot, with the candor of youth, said to 
her one day: “Madame is perhaps thinking of taking 
the veil.?” 

To which the girl replied, with a burst of laughter: 

“What makes you say that, knave.?” 

“If I say it, it is because others say it. Madame 
appears like someone who is about to make her will 
and to retire from the world,” 

“Ha, ha! They are perhaps not wrong in think- 
ing so 1 Society, my boy, is a road on which one 
loses more than one gains.” 

“That is what I think myself sometimes. Look at 
my poor master. If he had not been in society, he 
would have been here to-day, alive and well. But 
from the day on which he met that woman — ” 

“Eh.?” asked Gabrielle; “of what woman are you 
speaking .?” 

“Of her who came to see him on the day of his 
death.” 

She could not suppress a shudder. 

But Charles did not see it, for he turned his back 
upon her as he spoke. It is true that that rascal of a 
P’tit Homme had eyes in the back of his head. 


Gabrielle resumed: 

“Then you believe the story of that visit?” 

“I must believe it.” 

“Why? Did not the assassin retract? Did he not 
avow that he killed Gontran in order to rob him?” 

The servant half turned upon his heel with such 
rapidity, that he was face to face with the woman 
upon whose features he surprised all the shades of 
anxiety. 

“No, madame. I do not like that M. de Cloziers 
more than you, surely. But, the truth is the truth. 
He did not confess the theft.” 

Gabrielle felt ill at ease. 

“Perhaps;, but it is all the same, since he did not 
deny having killed him. But that is not the question. 
You said you were now sure that Mme. de Cloziers 
came to see your master?” 

“She or some other woman, — I do not think it was 
she more than another. But a lady came; that, I am 
positive of.” 

“Why.?” 

“Because, in the morning, I gave monsieur a letter 
the handwriting upon which was a woman’s, and that 
letter — ” 

“Well?” asked Gabrielle in a changed voice. 

“Has not been found.” 

“Oh,” cried the woman, “Gontran must have re- 
turned it to her.” 

Charles’ eyes no longer searched the wanton’s soul. 

“Then the woman game,” he corrected. 


172 


LITTLE MAN 


She perceived the mistake she had made. She tried 
to repair it. 

said she, ‘^who knows but that the thief took 
the letter at the same time as the money 

That was what the gamin was awaiting. 

“See! I thought the same thing, madame, — it is 
possible.” 

“Why?” repeated Gabrielle for the third time. 

“That is easy to understand. The assassin was 
M. de Cloziers, was it not?” 

“Yes.” 

“And he, according to the verdict, is the thief too?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then, madame, what do you say of the husband 
who accuses his wife, and who does not furnish the 
proof he has in his pocket?” 

The deduction was so crushing in its logic, that 
Mile, de Lange was greatly confused. She lost her 
self-possession for a moment, but soon regained it. 

“Bah!” she exclaimed. “Do you think they would 
have accepted as proof a letter not even signed?” 

“What, not signed?” 

Gabrielle was losing her head completely. She 
had made three great mistakes in a conversation of 
less than fifteen minutes. Fortunately, with that fel- 
low, those inadvertences were of no consequence. 

“Ah! yes,” she resumed with a smile, “does a wo- 
man ever sign letters like that one?” 

But that was no reply. The boy was sufficiently 


LITTLE MAN 


173 


posted. The thief was certainly the woman before 
him. That could no longer be doubted. 

What convinced Charles were the words added by 
Gabrielle. “Moreover, my boy, I will wager my 
head that they will some day find that letter in poor 
Gontran’s apartments. There must surely have been 
a hiding-place for such things.’’ 

“Ah,” thought P’tit Homme, “I see through you. 
You are trying to contrive some way of returning to 
the hotel and you will then replace the letter. But as 
I have examined everything carefully before you, I 
am sure that little note is not there.” 

By the terms of his engagement, the boy had re- 
served a day in each week on which to go to dust 
and arrange the furniture in the apartments at Rue 
Spontini, the heirs of which continued to allow him 
to take care of it. Implicitly, Gabrielle had just in- 
formed him that she would profit by one of those 
occasions to enter the deserted house herself. 

In that Charles Leflot was disappointed, however. 

Mile, de Lange did not feel capable of accomplish- 
ing her object in such a manner. 

She preferred to depend upon a more common but 
easier means and she resolved to put her design into 
execution as soon as possible. 

It is frequently observed that very often it is the 
slightest detail which is neglected, that causes the 
failure of plans the most skillfully conceived by great 
criminals, 


174 


LITTLE MAN 


Gabrielle de Lange was only half-criminal; she 
was a thief, in the ordinary sense of the word, but 
perfectly incapable of planning a scheme or of antic- 
ipating consequences. 

The idea had not therefore occurred to her to de- 
stroy Mme. de Cloziers’ note. 

Perhaps she would have done so had she not had 
the conversation just related with the servant, which 
conversation she thought had blinded him. 

And she reasoned with herself thus: 

“When the fellow has found the letter, he can 
speak of it as much as he wishes. I shall be quit of it. 
The law will punish him alone if he sees fit to chatter 
too much.’’ 


II 


It was Gabrielle’s plan to put the stolen money 
away as carefully as possible in order to use it with- 
out fear when the moment arrived. 

To do that, it must, at any price, be separated 
from anything that could disclose whence it origin- 
ated, and that letter of Mme. de Cloziers’, so unluck- 
ily brought to light by Charles Leflot, might prove a 
piece of conviction, since Gabrielle had found it in 
the same pocket-book in which were the thirty thou- 
sand francs and the three bonds stolen from the corpse. 

She reproached herself! 

She had been very stupid to begin with ! What 
more simple at the time of the trial and of the first 
inquiry, than to allow Robert de Cloziers to produce 
his defense with his wife’s letter to support it.^^ 

For that, would it not have been sufficient to re- 
place upon the body the pocket-book with the three 
bonds it contained.^ The letter would have been dis- 
covered at the same time, and, the murder thus ex- 
plained, they would not have sought a thief where 
there was none. As for the thirty thousand francs, 
supposing they had asked an account of them, Ga- 
brielle would only have had to appear, with head 
175 


176 


LITTLE MAN 


erect, to declare that she had received them as a gift 
from the count, before his death. 

It was what a thoroughbred rogue would have 
done. But she had been frightened, and was in 
haste to return the pocket-book to his pocket. So 
the accusation of theft had taken shape, and cor- 
roborated by Mme. de Cloziers’ reticence, it had be- 
come so apparent that it caused the conviction of the 
baron. 

Unfortunately, there was the story of the letter. 
And Gabrielle recalled the hurried conversation she 
had held with Charles between the two examinations 
he had been put to, — how she had suggested to him 
to abandon the hypothesis of a visit of the lady to 
his master in order to confirm by his declarations 
that of assassination followed by theft. 

Charles Leflot had developed singularly in three 
months, and his mind had acquired a penetration, a 
dangerous perspicacity ! He was less “sharp” than 
that at the time of the murder. If now he were to 
conceive suspicions, to imagine that the theft had 
been accomplished by another than Baron de Cloziers ! 

And Gabrielle was but half reassured as she thought 
that the boy had followed her advice simply to sat- 
isfy his desire of avenging his master. M. de Cloziers, 
the outraged husband, was not punishable; M. de 
Cloziers, the thief, would spend his days at the galleys. 
Evidently Charles Leflot had only seen that. 

It remained to be seen if that desire for vengeance 


LITTLE MAN 


177 


still lasted, and if he could withstand the reproaches 
which his conscience might some day make to him 
for having caused the condemnation of an innocent 
man! A grave problem which rendered the girl un- 
easy. 

First of all, it was necessary to post herself with 
regard to P’tit Homme's sentiments. 

She therefore made an attempt the following day 
with a lack of tact at which the boy laughed when 
the conversation was ended. 

Indeed, the subject was broached without any 
precaution, and the girl betrayed from the first the 
anxiety to which she was a prey. She took the serv- 
ant aside, and addressed to him point-blank this 
question : 

“Say, boy, yesterday you seemed preoccupied when 
you spoke to me!^’ 

“Excuse me, madame,’’ replied Charles, “if I do 
not understand you. In speaking to you of what 

“Of the letter which Gontran received the morning 
of the day on which — •’ 

“Ah!” said the boy. “The letter! Bah! What 
would you have.^ It was lost with the rest !” Men- 
tally he added: 

“She has returned to it. Let us see what she will 
tell me.” 

Then, aloud, struck by a sudden idea, he said: 

“It is, however, true that I should like to find that 
letter again.” 


178 


LITTLE MAN 


‘‘You have some plan with regard to it! Confess!*^ 
sneered the woman. 

“Well, you know, madame, one is always glad of 
a chance to earn something. And, I should not tell 
it, but I know of someone who would pay well to see 
that letter again.” 

“Ah, the knave! He prepares his deeds without 
saying a word. It is to Mme. de Cloziers that you 
would return that letter, is it not.^^” 

The boy laughed slyly. 

“Only think, madame, that letteristheproof of her 
error. Put yourself in her place, and you will* see 
that she would pay, without haggling, at least one 
hundred francs.” 

Gabrielle sighed. 

In the plan she was elaborating, that combination 
would fit admirably. But, alas, the money would not 
be hers. Still, she would have a share to take 
from the boy with that which he owed to Count de 
Platere’s bounty. 

Her sigh she interpreted quite differently to the 
boy. 

“My boy, you will have to give that up! Only a 
miracle could reproduce that letter. Who knows 
I adhere to my first opinion. They did not search 
well. I am sure your master must have had a secret 
drawer for such papers.” 

Then, turning towards him, as if she had re-con- 
sidered it: “Listen, will you divide with me.^ If I 


LITTLE MAN 


179 


help you in your search, if we find that note, will you 
promise to share with me the money given you . by 
the baroness?’^ 

He cunningly simulated interest. 

‘‘That was well said! Do I need your aid. ^ And 
then, a woman as rich as you, who receives from all 
sides, to take money from a poor boy like me! You 
would not, surely.’^ 

She thought the moment had arrived in which to 
display her generosity. 

“You are right, said she. “If you find it, you can 
keep it all. But it must be found, and that is the 
rub. Hunt for it! There are people who have dis- 
covered treasures in straw mattresses.’’ 

With which encouraging conclusion she left him. 

Scarcely had she turned upon her heel than P’tit 
Homme rubbed his hands. 

“This time I am sure I shall find my letter. But 
how will she manage to enter the hotel? There is 
only one key and I have it. The other is in the hands 
of the heirs. And into the bargain the lock is secure.” 

He concluded with this comforting and sensible 
reflection: “Bah! it is the day after to-morrow that 
I go there. Two nights and a day to spend!” 

Night came; he retired with the most perfect in- 
difference and prepared to go to sleep with his face 
to the wall. 

“I never lock my doors,” he scoffed. “If my key 
is missing to-morrow, I will be patient. The thief 
will surely return it to me the day after.” 


i8o 


LITTLE MAN 


He was not altogether mistaken. 

His key was returned that same night, before the 
dawn of day. And, the next morning, P’tit Homme 
could picture to himself what had taken place. 

Indeed, he had scarcely retired to his room than 
Gabrielle put her project into execution. How should 
she manage to enter the house of the late count.^ 

There were several means to choose from. The 
first was to wait until the third day, and, under some 
pretext, surprise the servant at his work, and profit 
by the occasion to place the terrible epistle in some 
hidden place where the boy would find it later. 

After consideration, she rejected that means. It 
was burdened with difficulties. 

The second consisted of taking his key from him 
surreptitiously and taking it to a locksmith of whom 
she would order a fac-simile. But the locksmith 
would take at least twenty-four hours to make it, 
and, in that interval, Charles Leflot would discover 
the loss of his key. 

No. It was too venturesome. 

The simplest, most expeditious way was to use the 
servant's key. 

She would do that. 

It was nine o'clock when he retired. Gabrielle, 
as a precautionary measure, allowed almost an hour 
and a half to pass before she decided to ascend to 
Leflot's room. 

The boy, notwithstanding his wise resolution and 


LITTLE MAN 


l8l 


his desire not to sleep, was overcome by sleep, so 
imperious at his age. His eyes grew heavy. The 
noises in the street ascended indistinctly to his attic. 

“Ah,’^ said he to himself. “I was mistaken. It 
will not be until to-morrow night. 

He turned and prepared to rise to close his door, 
when the creaking of the stairs warned him that some 
one was ascending to his floor. 

A moment later, a rustle warned him that some 
one was nearing his door. 

Then the door creaked significantly and Charles 
could not restrain his fear. 

If, instead of Gabrielle, whose visit he expected, 
an ordinary malefactor should enter his room. If it 
were only a tipsy servant, mistaking the door. The 
two hypotheses were plausible. 

He was not afraid long. A thief would not have 
stayed there, for there was nothing to steal, and a 
servant would have promptly discovered her error; 
those facts settled the uncertainty in P’tit Homme’s 
mind. 

A wandering hand, having groped in the darkness 
along the walls, and finding nothing there, now 
reached the foot of the bed. It was done with a light- 
ness, a delicacy of touch almost incredible. It was 
necessary to be prepared, as Charles Leflot was, to 
be aware of it. 

He thought to himself: 

“It is not to be breathed, but my mistress is an 


i 82 


LITTLE MAN 


arrant rogue. She has all the talent, she was pre- 
destined to thieve, surely.’^ 

Gabrielle drew towards her the boy’s clothes. 
Skillful as she was, she could not help a jingling sound 
in the trousers’ pockets, in one of which was the 
coveted key and some copper coins. 

At that noise, she suddenly stood there motionless, 
holding her breath. 

So that Charles, thinking her gone, was about to 
rise and prevent the success of the stratagem. 

But, feigning sleep, on seeing her still there, he 
limited himself to moving his left arm, and yawning. 

It was impossible to question so sound a sleep. 

Gabrielle continued her mission, drew forth the 
key, and replaced the trousers. 

‘‘Very well, ’’said the boy, when she had disappeared, 
closing the door after her, “I will lend you my key 
until the day after to-morrow, madame. Do not for- 
get to return it to me.” 

And, quite convinced that Mile, de Lange would 
not return his key until the next night, sure, more- 
over, that he would not lose it, he turned again upon 
his left side, and fell asleep, after laughing heartily. 

Meanwhile, Gabrielle threw a lace mantilla over 
her head, and, stopping the first cab she saw, drove 
to Rue Spontini. 

She was careful to stop before reaching her desti- 
nation, and to dismiss the cabman. 

Then Mile, de Lange walked resolutely on. 


LITTLE MAN I 83 

It was a dark, misty night, a night so common in 
Paris. 

The Platere hotel was a hundred feet or more 
from the street at which Gabrielle had alighted. 

It was half-past eleven. 

Gabrielle reached the door and resolutely put the 
key in the lock. The door swung open noisily. 
Corridor, ante-chamber, all the rooms mournfully re- 
echoed with that sound. 

Gabrielle de Lange paused abruptly on the thresh- 
old. 

A strange sensation, which she had never known, 
took possession of her and petrified her limbs, causing 
the blood to flow back violently to her heart. 

She was afraid. 

Yes, — afraid! The deserted house terrified her. 
Had not a man died there a violent, a sinful death.^ 
If the dead had re-appeared to chastise her, not 
only as an accomplice of his past errors, but above 
all as principal author of the crime for which an in- 
nocent man was suffering! 

For some time she remained thus, her teeth chat- 
tering, ready to turn and fly. 

Her presence of mind returned. The sound of 
footsteps was heard upon the sidewalk and reminded 
her that she had not closed the door behind her. 

The fear of the supernatural was succeeded by an- 
other well-founded fear. 

If those passers-by should perceive that the door 


i84 


LITTLE MAN 


was open ! If they should enter, if they should sur- 
prise her there in the act of forcing an entrance ! 

Rapidly she decided. She was again the strong- 
minded woman who had no fear of the dead. She 
entered, closed the door, and listened breathlessly to 
the sound of the footsteps which passed by. 

Gabrielle was no longer afraid. She laughed at her 
fear of ghosts! The dead could not speak. 

Her presence of mind returning, she thought of 
every detail. Her boots might have mud upon their 
soles, they might leave the imprint on the carpets, 
on the floors of the house. Charles Leflot would see 
those traces. One could not take too many precau- 
tions. 

The woman seated herself unceremoniously on the 
highest of the three steps which gave access from the 
door to the narrow vestibule. She drew off her damp 
boots which she would resume on going out. Then, 
without pausing, without hesitating, she nimbly as- 
cended the wooden staircase, raised the hangings on 
the landing and entered the bedroom. 

There, she paused. Her heart suddenly pulsated 
violently. The room, with its dark hangings, was 
filled with funereal silence, and that silence had voices 
which seemed to murmur in the darkness. Was she 
about to be possessed again by those terrors.? 

Once was enough! To give herself courage, the 
girl spoke aloud. Sacrilege became a resource for 
her. 


LITTLE MAN 18$ 

^‘Ohe! Gontran! If you are there, speak a little, 
that I may see!’’ 

She laughed at her audacity. She received no 
reply, but the room with its draperies, its furniture, 
its darkness, re-echoed with the sinister appeal. Ga- 
brielle felt uneasy. 

“Come! Come! Let us hurry! I am not here 
to laugh!” 

She took from her pocket a piece of candle, and 
lighted it hastily with a match with which she had pro- 
vided herself. The room was lighted dimly and Ga- 
brielle instinctively retreated from the large bed on 
which they had placed Gontran de Platere after his 
death. 

She saw a small secretary in a corner. She opened 
a drawer. There lay pell-mell papers of all kinds, 
accounts, bills, laundry lists, business letters, letters 
from women. 

Gabrielle pushed them aside as well as she could, 
and there inserted Mathilde de Cloziers’ letter, the 
letter in a large square envelope. Then she mixed 
up the heap again, and the most practiced eye could 
not have discovered any change. 

After which she closed the drawer, leaned a second, 
as if charmed, over a large black spot which stained 
the carpet from one end to the other of the room, 
and, after having put on her fine shoes, she rushed 
into the street. 

“There! That is done! I have been neither seen 
nor recognized.” 


1 86 LITTLE MAN 

The following morning, on rising at five o’clock, 
Charles Leflot paused several moments in surprise at 
finding the key of the house on Rue Spontini in his 
pocket. 

“Do I see clearly.^” he asked. “Or was I dream- 
ing last night?” 


Ill 


On Saturday, the 15th of March, Mathilde de 
Cloziers, who was completing her toilette, saw Jus- 
tine enter her chamber brusquely. 

The maid seemed somewhat surprised. 

“Madame, there is a boy here, who has the appear- 
ance of a valet, who says he desires to speak to 
madame at once, that madame would receive him 
were he only to tell his name.” 

“Did he tell you his name.?” asked her mistress, 
smiling in spite of herself. 

“Yes. He told me he was called Charles— Charles 
Duflot.” 

“You mean Leflot. He is right. Show him into 
the salon. I will be there soon.” 

Justine must have thought her mistress mad, for 
she looked at her with eyes dilated with surprise. 

In the salon,— a valet.? That was something new. 

As, however, Justine was a girl from Brittany, 
Somewhat stubborn, but accustomed, notwithstand- 
ing, to believe that her mistress knew more than she 
did, she executed the order given. 

Mathilde did not keep him waiting. 

She hastily donned a white flannel gown and re- 
ceived her visitor. It was almost a month since she 
187 


i88 


LITTLE MAN 


had received any news, and she was beginning to be 
seriously anxious. Was the little servant growing 
weary, or had he renounced his aid in her work of 
reparation? 

That visit was the best reply to her doubt, the so- 
lution of her perplexities. 

For it was not probable that Charles Leflot would 
surprise her thus in the morning, at barely eight 
o’clock, for the simple purpose of conversing with 
her. 

Her thoughts accorded so well with those of the 
boy, that they did not even exchange the formulas of 
politeness so common between superior and inferior. 

The baroness closed the door quickly, and advanc- 
ing with agitation, asked anxiously: 

“Well! Is there any news?’^ 

A malicious smile rose to the boy’s lips. 

“There is news, I believe you, madame, — and good 
news.’^ 

“Then you have found the stolen money 

“No, I have not found the money.’^ 

She drew back a step, disappointed. 

“But what did you just tell me? That is the only 
thing of importance!’^ 

“Madame,” said he slowly, “that which I have dis- 
covered is so grave that I cannot tell it you here. 
You must see it with your own eyes.” 

“Really?” exclaimed Mathilde incredulously. 
“Where must I go?” 


LITTLE MAN 1 89 

“To Rue Spontini, where you have already been 
twice. 

The baroness was startled at the proposition. 

“Return to that house, — never! It is beyond my 
strength!’’ 

The face of P’tit Homme wore a singular ex- 
pression of authority. 

“It is however necessary that you should go there, 
madame, and not alone. Let the lawyer accompany 
you.” 

His eyes were unusually bright, and his words were 
short and disconnected. 

Surely, the boy had become a man. One could 
easily see that once possessed by an idea, he was not 
easily dispossessed of it. He had acted under a simi- 
lar feeling in concealing the truth the better to assure 
vengeance for his master’s murder. 

In that circumstance, he entirely dominated the 
young woman. 

“Very well,” she acquiesced, “I will go. At what 
hour shall I be there 

“At any hour you wish after noon. I will await 
you.” 

“All right, my boy. I will call for M. Levasseur 
and we will meet you at three o’clock. Have you 
nothing else to tell me.^” 

“No, madame,” said Charles, gayly. “But what I 
have told you and what you will see this evening will 
be sufficient, I assure you.” 


LITTLE MAN 


190 

And he took leave of the young woman who was 
very much excited by that semi-revelation. 

Jean Levasseur, to whom she repaired at one 
o’clock, did not appear surprised by it. 

‘‘The boy is a cunning fellow. He would not dis- 
turb you for nothing, you may be sure. Til wager 
that this inquiry has made a great stride in our favor. 

And without any more argument, saying, with his 
habitual phlegm, that it was useless to rack one’s 
brain trying to unravel an enigma, he gave the order 
to his valet to fetch a cab. 

At three o’clock the baroness and the lawyer, hav- 
ing dismissed their cab, arrived at the hotel on foot. 
Charles Leflot awaited them on the threshold. 

He had a gay air. He ushered in the visitors mys- 
teriously. 

' “Well, gamin began M. Levasseur, “what do you 
mean by all this pantomime 

“Hush!’^ said the boy, putting his finger upon his 
lips. 

And, bending over the steps at the entrance, he 
pointed to two foot-prints on the first of those steps, 
as well as on a square of black marble. 

“What do you think that resembles, sir.^’’ 

Levasseur adjusted his eyeglasses and replied: 

“Those are the traces of boots, my boy ” 

“And yet — what kind of boots Are they police- 

men’s boots.^’’ 

The lawyer stooped again and examined them more 


LITTLE MAN 


I91 

“Those are woman’s boots, my boy, wet boots 
which were placed there. They had mud on their 
soles. 

“Altogether right, sir. Do you remember the last 
day it rained.?’’ 

“Yes, my boy, — the day before yesterday in the 
afternoon.” 

“But as it has not rained since then, it was on the 
evening of that day, apparently, that a woman’s feet 
left their' imprints here.” 

In spite of the gravity of the circumstances, Levas- 
seur could not help laughing. 

“My boy, you draw conclusions with the sagacity 
of a professional policeman. Have you any taste for 
that career.?” 

“I do not know,” said Charles. “The appetite 
comes with eating, as the proverb says.” 

“That is so, and you have commenced to eat. But 
since it amuses you to make us walk at your pleasure, 
continue. We are at your service.” 

“Madame saw too.?” the boy asked the baroness. 

“I have seen,” said Mathilde with a smile. 

“Very well! Then, let us pass to the second pict- 
ure.” 

He preceded the visitors and ascended the stair- 
case with them. Arrived at the top, he turned. 

“Oh, see, monsieur and madame,” he exclaimed, 
“it has not rained this morning, and you can be as- 
sured that your soles have left no traces.” 


192 


LITTLE MAN 


‘‘Well/’ exclaimed Levasseur. “But what signi- 
fie.s?” 

Charles began to laugh. He tapped his forehead in 
a waggish manner. 

“You do not understand, sir.^ You do not under- 
stand that the person who wore the boots either re- 
mained on the last step, which would have been too 
absurd, or else mounted flying — like a bird.^” 

“That is so, ” approved the young man. “ Decidedly, 
niy boy, it is your vocation. And, as that person did 
not fly, you suppose — 

“I do not suppose — I am sure that Mile, de Lange 
took off her boots on the landing and that she as- 
cended without them.” 

“Ah! Now you tear aside the veil; now you men- 
tion names! Then what.^” 

The servant, walking ahead, raised the portieres, 
crossed the ante-chamber and entered the bedroom, 
in which he opened the blinds. 

“We are now at the end of the discovery,” said he. 

He kneeled upon the carpet, and invited his two 
companions to examine it. 

But Mathilde, covering her face, drew back with a 
gesture of horror. She had perceived on the mo- 
quette that brown spot which, the preceding night, 
had likewise caused Gabrielle de Lange to start. Sud- 
denly Mme. de Cloziers recalled the nature and origin 
of that spot. It was there, in that same place, that 
had flowed the blood of the mortal wound made by 
Robert de Cloziers’ avenging hand. 


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“ I see the mark of a candle.” — p. 193 











LITTLE MAN 


193 


The boy observed the emotion felt by Mathilde. 

“It is not necessary that madame should look. 
Monsieur will suffice.” 

The latter, with evident repugnance, complied with 
Leflot’s desire. 

“I see the mark of a candle,” he said in reply to 
the mute question from the boy’s eyes. 

“You can see well, sir,” said Charles simply, rising. 

And, crossing his arms with the same malice of lips 
and of eyes, he asked: 

“Sir, what do you conclude from that.^” 

“Well,” said Levasseur, “I conclude from it quite 
naturally that Mile, de Lange, since you say that it is 
she, came here one day when it rained, or, more cor- 
rectly, one night, since she left the traces of her com- 
ing in the form of a drop of grease.” 

“Right,” said the little servant. 

“Only,” resumed the lawyer, “why did she come? 
That is the problem.” 

“Yes,” echoed Charles, “that is the problem.” 

“Was it in consequence of an obsession, under the 
influence of a nightmare.?” 

“I do not think that madame has ever had the 
thing of which you speak.” 

“Was it to replace the money, in order to throw all 
suspicion from herself?” 

P’tit Homme laughed scornfully: 

“Ah! You surely do not know her! Return the 
money? No, it was not the money she came here 
to bring.” 


194 


LITTLE MAN 


^‘See,’^ interrupted the lawyer, “you are a shrewd 
fellow, and you act your part marvelously. But 
enough of reticences. Do not let us dally any longer 
and tell us all you know. For it was not solely to 
prove to us that Mile, de Lange came here that you 
brought us hither. 

Charles saw that the time for an explanation had 
come. 

“You are right, said he, seriously. “It was for 
something else. But,’^ he added with the tact and 
delicacy of a man of the world, “we will re-enter the 
ante-chamber on account of madame, who probably 
does not feel very comfortable.’^ 

He had indeed remarked the embarrassment and 
extreme pallor of Mme. de Cloziers. 

“Thank you, my boy,” she replied. “Certainly 
the sight of those objects recalls to me frightful mem- 
ories. But I have come to do my duty. Tell us, 
therefore, what you have to say, for I fancy that the 
finale of your revelation is enclosed in that room.” 

The boy invited his interlocutors to seats. They . 
preferred to remain standing. 

Then Charles, with remarkable clearness, without 
omitting a single detail, related his conversation of 
the preceding day with Gabrielle; how, despairing of 
finding the hiding-place in which the woman had 
stowed away the stolen money, he had tried to obtain 
her secret from her by strategy; how he had broached 
the subject of the lost letter, and what had followed; 


LITTLE MAN 


195 


the manifest anxiety of Gabrielle, the temporary loan 
of his key and its restitution the same night. 

“You see/^ said he, “that madame’s aim was cer- 
tainly to bring the letter back here.” 

Jean Levasseur could not refrain from expressing 
his admiration. 

“Truly,” he exclaimed, “you are an extraordinary 
boy, P’tit Homme, and I vow you shall be rewarded 
for all you have done. But, have you found the letter ?” 

The boy replied in the negative. 

“It does not matter,” replied Levasseur hastily, “it 
is certain that the letter is here. Everything agrees 
to prove it. We will help you to search for it. We 
must not lose such a chance.” 

“It was to help me that I sent for you.” 

Suddenly the three interlocutors turned, facing one 
another, petrified, motionless, like conspirators sur- 
prised at some secret council. 

The bell rang metallically. 

“Who could come at this hour.?” exclaimed the 
lawyer. 

“To an unoccupied house,” added Mme. de Clo- 
ziers. 

Again it was Charles' quick wit which was the first 
to determine what was passing. 

“Ah!” he cried, “she only could come; she knows 
that on Saturday the house is not empty, for I am 
here. It is she, certainly, come to see if her ruse has 
succeeded.” 


196 


LITTLE MAN 


He added, however, to himself: 

‘‘Or it might be some one to look at the house. 
The bill may have attracted some one. We will see, 
at any rate.^^ 

The bell rang again. 

Charles Leflot disclosed his white teeth. 

“What did I tell you! It is she. I know madame’s 
ring when she is impatient. I will open the door.^' 

“Well! And where shall we conceal ourselves?’^ 
asked Mathilde, looking at the lawyer in terror, for 
that interruption would upset the entire plan so skill- 
fully devised. The boy reflected a moment. Then 
said quickly: 

“Hide behind the long curtains in the ante-cham- 
ber, near the smoking-room. She will never think of 
looking there.” 

Mme. de Cloziers and the lawyer had no choice. 

They wrapped themselves as well as they could in 
the folds of the portieres. Meanwhile Charles has- 
tened to the corridor. Gabrielle was already calling 
through the key-hole. 

“Hello! P’tit Homme, are you dead or alive Open 
the door!” 

“I am coming! I am coming!” replied the boy. 

From their place of concealment, Mathilde and 
Levasseur could hear the dialogue. 

Leflot feigned surprise. 

“Ah, it is you, madame! What do you want here 

Mile, de Lange ascended the staircase nimbly. 


LITTLE MAN 


197 


Arrived on the threshold of the ante-chamber, be- 
tween the two animated curtains, she turned and cast 
over her shoulder this sentence: 

“I have come to help you search for the letter, you 
know. Since you told me that the baroness would pay 
you liberally, I have not rested. Now to work, Charles ’ 
If you find it, you will keep the entire sum. If I find 
it, we will divide.’^ 

‘‘Very well, madame,” replied Charles. 

The play was proceeding finely, and Mme. de Clo- 
ziers and the lawyer were in the best boxes. 

The boy sustained wonderfully well his part of an 
unsophisticated youth. He hovered around the wo- 
man, and talked with her as loud as possible in order 
that the invisible witnesses might not lose a word of 
the conversation. 

And, as he replied to Gabrielle, he said to himself 
in petto: 

“Come, come, search, rummage. I know I shall 
soon have the letter. He laughs best who laughs last.’’ 

“So, madame,” said he, “you have decided to take 
from me half of the profits — you, a lady so rich and 
with so many lovers.^” 

“Firstly, my boy, I am not rich. Then, remember 
this: — no gain is too small.” 

And together they moved the furniture, opened cup- 
boards and chests. 

Suddenly, Charles Leflot pretended to have an 
idea. 


198 


LITTLE MAN 


‘‘Ah, I know. You told me the other day that 
there were people who had found treasures in straw 
mattresses. I will examine this one.” 

She laughed merrily. 

“Examine it, if you like, my boy. But men do 
not think of such things! Did not your master have 
a secretary, a drawer, in which he kept his corre- 
spondence.^” 

“Yes, he had one,” replied the boy. “He threw all 
his letters into it pell-mell and then stormed because 
he could not find them.” 

“Well! Then we must search there, knave!” 

“If I were to tell you that they have hunted every- 
where, in everything 

She shrugged her shoulders. 

“I tell you that men are all fools! Show me that 
piece of furniture, and you shall see.” 

Charles Leflot did not require urging. The solution 
was at hand. He would hasten and thus put an end 
to the baroness’ and the lawyer’s dangerous situation. 

At the end of five minutes, Gabrielle drew from the 
secretary the letter which she had placed there her- 
self the day before, and held it under the gamin’s 
nose. 

“There!” cried she triumphantly, “what do you say 
to that, little idiot? There is your letter! There it 
is, and your detectives are fools.” 

She disdainfully cast the missive at the boy’s feet 
and descended the staircase, calling to him: 


LITTLE MAN 


199 


“I am going because this house, brr! makes me 
shiver. Do not forget that you owe me half of what 
the baroness pays you 

Then they heard the street door close noisily be- 
hind her. 

Her visit had not lasted more than fifteen minutes. 
At the same time Levasseur and Mme. de Cloziers 
emerged from their hiding-place. 

Charles Leflot held his sides, as he repeated: 

“The detectives are fools!’’ 

Mathilde opened her purse. 

She drew from it a hundred franc note. 

“Take this for yourself, my boy,” said she with 
emotion. “You have well earned it. And here is a 
louis for Mile. Gabrielle’s share.” 

“An excellent division,” approved the lawyer. 

He placed the letter which Mme. de Cloziers handed 
him in his pocket-book. 

“Here is,” he concluded, “a commencement of the 
proof. But it is not sufficient. It is for you, my 
boy, to continue your work. I am now sure of suc- 
cess. P’tit Homme (little man), we shall henceforth 
have to call you Grand Homme (great man).” 


IV 


The lawyer was right; the letter was not sufficient. 
What did it prove? Simply that M. de Platere was 
to receive, on the afternoon of the day of his murder, 
a visit from the lady who had not signed her note. 
That the lady was Mme. de Cloziers, nothing proved, 
not even her avowal. For the law suspected her of 
making the avowal out of regret for her husband’s 
sentence. 

And, as for relating to the judges the story of the 
replacing of the letter in the dead man’s secretary, 
that was not to be thought of. They would have qual- 
ified it as romancing. The testimony of Charles 
Leflot, besides being of no value in itself by virtue 
of the formula testis iinuSy testis nulluSy would be 
easily answered by Gabrielle, who would reproach 
the boy for not having made any mention of that 
epistle at the examination and the trial. The judges 
would conclude quite naturally that the letter, if it 
had really been from Mme. de Cloziers, had been re- 
turned to her by him for whom it was destined. 

Thus, all that planning had only become the con- 
fusion, perhaps the condemnation of Charles Leflot. 
The poor boy did not merit such remuneration for 
his kind offices. 


200 


LITTLE MAN 


201 


The letter was only worth the title of a document; 
it was, as M. Levasseur had said, the commencement 
of proof. It must be held in reserve, kept until later. 

All that, the lawyer had minutely explained to the 
servant, who was very shrewd, and who promised to 
continue his work of observation. 

On the other hand, Mathilde’s efforts with regard 
to the Secretary of the Navy had been finally crowned 
with success. Not only had they found traces of M. 
Reval, but he had received the first dispatch. Dur- 
ing the latter part of April, Mme. de Cloziers was 
officially informed of the intended arrival of the ex- 
plorer at the French port of Zequinchor, recently 
annexed to our territory. 

She therefore wrote a letter, at the lawyer’s dicta- 
tion, which was immediately sent to M. Reval. 
Without emphasizing her request, Mathilde none-the- 
less conjured the explorer to reply quickly, to even 
return to France, if it lay in his power to do so. 

Time flew by with startling rapidity. 

It was already five months that Robert had been 
unjustly imprisoned for an error he had not committed. 
The illness which had prostrated him, had hindered 
his departure for New Caledonia. Now that his res- 
toration to health was almost established, it was im- 
possible to save him from being sent with the next 
convoy, which was to be formed at Rochefort early 
in June. 

Mathilde was in despair. The imminence of the 


202 


LITTLE MAN 


departure redoubled her anguish and made her a prey 
to dire uncertainty. 

In the midst of her desolation one circumstance 
rendered her distress still more poignant. 

Robert persisted in his obstinate refusal to pardon 
her. Levasseur had tried in vain to overcome that 
obstinacy. Robert himself suffered the most, for he 
loved his wife passionately. But pride seemed to have 
rooted the determination in his breast. 

And, each time, the lawyer brought to the woman 
the Same implacable response: 

“Do not speak to me of it any more, I pray you! 
She is dead to me.’’ 

One day, however, a violent reaction set in. Ma- 
thilde was on the verge of rebellion. 

“M. Levasseur,” she exclaimed, “things cannot 
remain thus. My health is being undermined and my 
strength exhausted. By dint of driving me to de- 
spair, my husband will deprive me of the energy nec- 
essary for the achievement of the work to which I have 
devoted myself. I must see him.” 

The lawyer looked at her in silence. 

That despairing face, those eyes bright with unshed 
tears, frightened him. 

Mathilde spoke the truth. Robert was well re- 
venged. He would kill his wife in the long run. 

“Will you let me manage it, madame.^” brusquely 
asked the lawyer. “I’ll wager that before eight days 
are over, your husband will himself ask to speak to 
you.” 


LITTLE MAN 


203 


As she looked at him in surprise, he smiled signifi- 
cantly. 

The followingfc-day, indeed, Levasseur called upon 
his client at Mazas. 

That which had helped the most to strengthen 
Robert in his resolution not to pardon, was the disap- 
pointment he had undergone at not seeing the lawyer’s 
first promises realized. Had he not told him that 
Mathilde repented of her fault, that, by working for 
the liberation of her husband, she would soon show 
him the sincerity of that repentance.? 

But nothing, up to that time, had confirmed the 
lawyer’s words. On his* part, the latter, as much not 
to awaken in the baron’s mind premature hopes, as 
in the fear of compromising by a hasty revelation the 
result of their common efforts, had not dared to con- 
fide anything to the prisoner. 

In order, however, in some manner, to prevent 
the catastrophe becoming irreparable by the death 
or even the illness of Mme. de Cloziers, Levasseur 
did not hesitate to tell as much of the secret as was 
necessary to draw from the baron a kind word. 

He did therefore as he had told Mme. de Cloziers 
he would, he proceeded to the prison. 

The prisoner seemed more dejected than usual. 

When the lawyer questioned him on the cause of 
that abnormal sadness, he discovered that Robert 
had heard through one of his guards that he was des- 
tined to be one of the next convoy. 


204 


LITTLE MAN 


That was the insupportable part of his sorrow. Up 
to that time, indeed, as hard as the confinement in 
the jail was, he had at least enjoyed that immense, 
that unappreciable advantage, — solitude. He had 
thus been able to avoid contact with real criminals. 

Henceforth, he would lose that guarantee, - that 
privilege of isolation. He would have more room, he 
would enjoy several immunities, the distraction of a 
voyage, the benefit of a change of air. All those 
“favors’^ had been kindly enumerated to him by the 
guards, touched with pity at his inconsolable distress. 
But that which they did not mention, of which they 
did not remind him, was the life in common, the 
abominable promiscuousness of the galleys, that an- 
ticipated purgatory, the most extreme chastisement 
for great crimes. 

So the unfortunate man, who did not deceive him- 
self on that subject, abandoned himself to all the bit- 
terness of his reflections. He wept abundantly. 

Levasseur judged the moment opportune. Never 
would a more favorable situation present itself. 

‘‘My friend,’^ said he, “it is precisely that contin- 
gency which we are trying to prevent, your wife and 

“ My wife exclaimed Robert, quickly raising his 
head. 

He did not say, as he had at other times, “that 
woman. 

“Yes, your wife/’ resumed the lawyer. “For an 


LITTLE MAN 


205 


entire month she has been interceding to obtain your 
maintenance here. As she managed to obtain per- 
mission to nurse you during your illness.’’ 

The prisoner interrupted him. His face had several 
times changed color and passed through all the 
shades of astonishment; by turns sad and happy. 

At length he spoke: 

“My wife nursed me during my illness, did you say 
That is the first time you told me so.” 

“I obeyed her wish in maintaining silence with re- 
gard to the story of that devotion.” 

“And why did she not wish you to reveal to me that 
devotion.? Why did she not reveal it to me herself .?” 

“For various reasons, my friend; the first was that 
the doctors feared the effect upon you of that dis- 
closure.” 

“Ah!” he exclaimed, clasping his hands, “it was 
then for that reason she nursed me secretly, that 
she donned the garb of a nurse .? And I was not dream- 
ing, I was not delirious, I was not mistaken in believ- 
ing in her presence at my bedside, on the day on 
which she left as you entered, do you remember .?” 

“I remember,” said Levasseur gravely. “She'is a 
noble woman.” 

Robert’s head was bowed. He added no word of 
praise. But soon recurring to what the lawyer had 
previously said, he asked: 

“There was another reason.?” 

“Oh! the other does her still more credit. Mme. 


2o6 


LITTLE MAN 


de Cloziers did not wish to confess to you that proof 
of her affection until the day of your liberation by 
her efforts.’^ 

‘‘By her efforts?” repeated the baron, like an echo. 

“Since that time,” continued Levasseur, “she has 
redoubled them. Nothing is too much for her. Un- 
fortunately, such efforts cannot be made without 
causing a great mental and physical strain, and — ” 

“And?” interrupted Robert, deeply agitated. 

“Mme. de Cloziers is ill, — so ill that I am seriously 
anxious about her.” 

Robert retreated. He slowly paced the cell, his 
hands behind his back, his head bowed. Convulsive 
spasms caused his breast to heave and the veins upon 
his forehead and neck to swell. It was evident that 
he was suffering intensely. 

Finally he paused before Levasseur. 

“My friend,” he asked in an altered voice, “do you 
think that her life is in danger?” 

“Thank God,” replied the other with heartfelt sin- 
cerity, “my fears do not go that far. But it is none 
the less true that Mme. de Cloziers seems to be se- 
riously ill. Her grief affects her.” 

“What,” asked the baron, “would you advise me to 
do in this case?” 

“Nothing that would be derogatory to your dignity. 
I have explained to you that your wife is innocent of 
the greatest of her wrongs in your eyes. Grant her 
an interview, and I am persuaded that you will have 


LITTLE MAN 


207 


done a great deal toward restoring to her the com- 
posure of which she has such need.’^ 

He remained inert. A shudder shook him from 
head to foot. 

“See her again he murmured, while beads of per- 
spiration trickled down his brow. 

Then in a transport of gratitude, the spontaneity of 
which no one could better appreciate than the law- 
yer, he grasped his hand. 

“See,^’ he cried, with tears in his eyes, “I cannot 
give you a better, a more convincing proof of 
my gratitude toward, of my affection for you. 
You have always counseled me wisely, you have not 
deserted me a single instant. ' It is to your advice 
that I again defer in saying to you: Go to my wife 
and tell her she may come. I will not reproach her.’’ 

He added, ‘with a heart-rending expression of bit- 
terness: “It will be enough punishment for her to see 
with her own eyes to what a condition she has re- 
duced me.” 

The lawyer asked nothing more of him. 

“Well and good,” said he joyously, returning his 
client’s pressure, “to-morrow your wife will be here.” 

The interview between the guilty wife and the im- 
prisoned husband was touching. 

At the moment that Mathilde entered the cell, 
Robert, who had risen to receive her, said: 

“You wished to speak to me, madame; I am ready 
to hear you.” 


208 


LITTLE MAN 


Adding with cruel irony: 

“I have no other seat to offer you than this bench. 
That I owe to the munificence of the government.’^ 

He re-seated himself upon his bed, as if exhausted 
by his emotion. 

Mme. de Cloziers had never before seen a prison- 
cell in its terrifying bareness. In the infirmary there 
were at least curtains at the windows and the beds, 
air and light. Here, all was lacking. 

She felt her strength forsake her. A sob rent her 
breast and she fell upon her knees. 

“Robert,” she besought, “I am very guilty, I know. 
For almost six months I have repeated those words 
daily, hourly. I merit your hatred, your scorn, and 
yet I come to solicit your pardon, your indulgence, 
if you like that better.” 

As he made a gesture of dissent, she continued: 

“Not at once, not at once! I do not ask you to 
forgive me immediately. No, — later on, when you 
will, when you think I have atoned, when I am dead — ” 

The baron started. 

Mathilde added, breathlessly: 

“Give me one hope, nothing but a hope. I have 
not the right to more, but • perhaps I have the right 
to that. You do not know all that I have done to 
make reparation, Robert; you do not know all that 
I have suffered, how much I have borne, what tears 
I have shed! You do not know what fever, what de- 
spair has wrought in my soul! You do not know that 


LITTLE MAN 


209 


there are hours in which I ask God to put an end to 
that torture, when I offer him my life in exchange for 
your liberty, your happiness! You do not know that 
if I had not consecrated myself to the work of your 
deliverance twenty times over I would have ended my 
sufferings.’’ 

He rose, somber, disdainful, with contracted brows. 

“What! Madame, you speak to me of your suffer- 
ings. Have I not had mine.^ Do they not still exist.? 
And what connection is there between the two ? What 
harm have I done you.? I swore not to reproach you. 
But, in reality, when I hear you find fault with your 
lot, I cannot help comparing it to mine. You made 
of me in a single day, a madman, a murderer, an ac- 
cused and a being deplorably miserable. When by 
a word, by one, you could have spared me the dis- 
grace of a condemnation, you enacted an incredible 
comedy. It is true, I killed your lover, and you 
vowed to avenge him. You should be satisfied.” 

She did not rise. 

“Oh! you are right, Robert,” she replied, “I have 
no right to complain. I too have made that compar- 
ison between your fate and mine. You are innocent, 
I am guilty. Sleep can bring you repose, and dreams, 
for a few moments, interrupt the nightmare of real- 
ity. I know neither sleep nor dreams, and when I 
attempt to fly from the sight of men, I find the eye 
of God looking into the very foundation of my soul ! 

“But, as great as my crime has been, it seems to 


210 


LITTLE MAN 


me that I have expiated it in part; it seems to me 
that this silent reproach has found voice within my 
heart, and that voice cries to me: ‘Courage! Per- 
severance! The spot is wearing off! Your tears have 
washed it!’” 

He did not reply. He stood before her. 

She partly rose, seized one of his hands, pressed 
her lips upon it, and he did not even repulse her. 

“Robert, my Robert, I swear to you that my life 
is yours; I swear to you that I love you with all my 
soul, and that I would be happy, mad with joy, if I 
could die for you !” 

The baron could not resist. Those tears, those 
supplications had softened his heart. 

Gently he raised her; he retained her two hands. 
She saw that he, too, was weeping. 

“Oh! Mathilde! Mathilde!” he sobbed, “I forget, 
I pardon all, all, excepting that terrible scene I wit- 
nessed — that man, that kiss.” 

A cry escaped the woman’s breast. 

“Ah, you love me, you still love me! God is good! 
You can kill me now, if you will. I am happy, I will 
die blessing you ! Ah ! it is true ! If I could burn out 
the trace of that kiss! For there was only that one, 
my Robert, I swear to you. I was mad, and to-day 
I cannot explain my madness, since I have never loved 
but you!” 

The arms of the prisoner were outstretched. Ma- 
thilde rushed into them. He pressed her to his bosom 
almost fiercely, while she murmured: 













;<>»»». 


He pressed her to his bosom. — p. 210. 


« 




































LITTLE MAN 


21 I 


‘‘Whatever may be your fate, whithersoever you 
may go — I will be with you, near you, for life, for 
death/^ 


V 


Mme. de Cloziers’ efforts could not hinder Robert’s 
departure. He had been ordered from Mazas to He 
de Re. Fortunately, his wife had been able to stop 
the voyage thither. The governor of the prison was 
an old officer, having formerly served under General 
de Cloziers, Robert’s father. That fact gained for 
the convict some consideration, in addition to which 
the baroness could show the governor a letter recently 
arrived from Africa. It was signed by M. Lucien 
Reval. 

The explorer had written these simple lines: 

“Madame, after my return to France, which will 
certainly occur at the end of this year or at the com- 
mencement of next, I shall bring to my dear and un- 
happy friend the testimony of an esteem and a sym- 
pathy which has never diminished in the least. 

“I have read the sad story, and I confirm his decla- 
ration. Yes, it is absolutely true that I entrusted to 
Robert, at the moment of my departure, twenty thou- 
sand francs, leaving to my friend the permission to in- 
vest them or to dispose of them for his own use. I 
desire this first proof to reach him at once. I will sup- 
port him by my verbal testimony on my return.” 

“You see, sir,” said Mathilde to the governor, “we 
212 


LITTLE MAN 


213 


are on the eve of having this case reviewed. You 
would not choose such a time to send my poor husband, 
already very much exhausted by the severity of his 
imprisonment, from France.’^ 

And the excellent man to whom those harsh duties 
were confided had seen at once the cruelty of send- 
ing away his unhappy prisoner at that moment. 

Mathilde had done more. She had settled on the 
island, almost beneath the windows of the prison. 
Twice a week, she visited and consoled the prisoner, 
whose courage she had raised on communicating to 
him the letter from his friend, Reval. 

The lawyer, Jean Levasseur, joining his affection 
to that of the baroness, had three times taken the 
train from Paris to Rochefort to sustain by his knowl- 
edge his former client. 

All those events had taken time, and it was the end 
of October. But, while those things took place on 
the shores of the ocean, the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean were about to become the theater of the fifth 
and last act of that affecting drama. 

Charles Leflot, always upon the watch, began to 
despair. He lost patience. All the zeal he employed 
to watch Mile, de Lange proved fruitless. The hid- 
ing-place of the stolen notes remained undiscovered, 
and the boy wondered if Mile, de Lange had not 
quietly stowed the money away, reserving it for use 
in her old age. 

So P’tit Homme was desperate when an unexpected 
event raised his hopes. 


214 


LITTLE MAN 


One year almost entirely of silence and of retire- 
ment was too much for the patience of Gabrielle. 
She would never recover from having spent the pre- 
ceding winter in Paris. November came; the fogs 
were intolerable and the cold intense. 

So, one morning, on descending from her room to 
breakfast, Gabrielle, tormented by her passion for the 
roulette, announced to her servants her imminent de- 
parture for Monte-Carlo. At that announcement 
Charles Leflot could not help turning pale. 

If the woman went away, — alone or accompanied 
by a swain — she would escape his surveillance. 

Then all would be lost, he would no longer have 
the means of finding the money. And the boy divined 
instinctively that the money would pay the cost of 
the journey, of the sojourn there and of — the roulette. 

His anxiety was not of long duration. 

Mile, de Lange turned towards the cook, the fifth 
at least whom she had engaged since her removal to 
Rue Cardinet. 

‘‘Amelie,’^ said she, “I cannot keep you, my girl. I 
will pay you for two weeks. You will have ample 
time to find another place. 

The servant made no objections. She was accus- 
tomed to such disappointments. 

“Very well, madame,’’ she replied with submission. 

And instinctively, mechanically, she proceeded to 
untie her apron. 

Left alone with his “patroness’^ Charles approached 
her timidly. 


LITTLE MAN 


2IS 


“And I, madame?’^ he asked. “Shall you give me 
two weeks’ notice as well?’^ 

Gabrielle was in the act of eating a roll which she 
cut into small pieces and dipped into a cup of choco- 
late, after having first buttered them. 

She turned upon her chair and stared at the boy. 

“Yes,’’ said she. “You shall not leave me; I shall 
take you with me.” 

The blood rushed to the boy’s pale cheeks. 

He would gain by that change. Not only was noth- 
ing modified in his role, but he would probably live 
better, he would see the country, he would have di- 
version. Still farther — now or never the woman would 
disclose to him the whereabouts of the hiding-place 
of that money. “What happiness!” he exclaimed 
joyfully. 

“Ah! That pleases you, P’tit Homme.?” she laughed. 

“Does that please me.? I should think so. A trip 
to Monaco!” 

“Yes, my boy, to Monaco! Perhaps I am setting 
you a bad example, and if you go to confession, you 
will charge me with it. But, what would you have ? 
I love money and I believe that I have this time the 
true — the good — ” 

“The true — the good — what.?” interrupted Charles. 

She burst into laughter at the sight of his blank 
face. 

“It is true, you do not know what a martingale is, 
my poor little fellow! Well, listen: If you are very 


2i6 


LITTLE MAN 


good, I will give you a louis, in four instalments of 
five francs each, and I will bid you play twelve num- 
bers, in order that you may triple your stakes. You 
will see, we shall both be rich in the spring.” 

Of that speech, the boy only understood that his 
mistress was taking him into a vast gaming-house 
where one could win and where one almost always 
lost a great deal of money. He pictured to himself 
the gaming-house not as it is, but as one of those 
clandestine clubs, where in the evening he had so 
often gone in search of madame or to take her her 
furs. 

Gabrielle did not make any further explanations. 

She was one of those people who claim that one 
learns to swim by plunging into the water, that by 
forging one becomes a forger. For what would it 
otherwise have served to initiate that child in the 
splendors of Monte-Carlo in advance.^ 

But as it was necessary to assure her retreat and 
to keep up appearances, she thought it would be pru- 
dent to explain to her ‘kittle friends” the origin of 
the money she was about to use. 

With that object, she invited them all to a sumpt- 
uous farewell dinner. She related to them that 
three days before, at the opera, she had been invited 
into the Prince of Iceland’s box, and that that sover- 
eign of the North had given her, as a present, a pin 
of inestimable value. The pin she had exchanged 
the following day, for a number of bank-notes, secretly 


LITTLE MAN 


217 


offered by a lady of the same nationality, desirous of 
buying up thus the good graces of her sovereign. 

After all, the matter was not impossible. There 
was only lacking a concordance of dates, for, precisely 
on the date indicated. Mile, de Lange had returned 
from the theater alone and vexed. 

But that detail, Charles Leflot alone knew, and he 
did not divulge it. 

Gabrielle and he the next day took the 8:40 ex- 
press from Marseilles. They arrived at Monte-Carlo 
the third day at ten o’clock. 

The woman immediately hastened to engage a bed- 
room and a sitting-room for herself on the second 
floor, and a room in the upper story for her “groom,’’ 
as she called Charles, at the Hotel de Russie. 

The same day, after lunch, she entered the Casino 
and took her place at one of the eight roulette-tables. 

Royally, munificently, she had added a second louis 
to the one promised her servant, recommending him 
not to venture but five francs at a time. 

“I shall watch, madame, that I may learn,” said 
P’tit Homme rather maliciously. 

He learned with marvelous rapidity. 

At first, though somewhat dazzled by all the luxury 
of decoration, by the collection of attractive objects, 
the boy had promptly recovered from the shock. 

Monte-Carlo, indeed, constitutes, from one end to 
the other, a surprising master-piece, granted that a 
master-piece is a work realizing its end by all the 
means which tend to make it such. 


2I8 


LITTLE MAN 


There the harmony is complete between the result 
aimed at and the instrument which produces that re- 
sult. 

What is to be obtained there 

Gold, that chimera, the object of all covetousness; 
gold, necessary to the existence of all men, still more 
necessary for the gratification of appetites which fre- 
quently profoundly degrade the human being. 

Enter the marble palace with its colonnades of 
jasper. Your eye is at first seduced by the exterior 
of that somewhat factitious luxury. You experience 
a sort of dizziness at the perfume exhaled from the 
flowers, at the tones of the orchestra, which, from the 
gardens, sends its harmony as far as the vast halls, at 
those lovely young women, endowed with so many 
seductions. 

Well! You are only as yet at the beginning of the 
end. This is only the commencement of the intoxi- 
cation. A deleterious vapor infests those gardens and 
halls, and soon you will be impregnated by it like 
the rest. 

For it is not the temple of Venus. Those perfumes, 
those melodies, those dazzling sights are not offerings 
to Aphrodite, those women are not priestesses. The 
only god adored, who here reigns despotically, is gold, 
gold which no idol of paganism has ever represented, 
but which all the human race honors, pursues and 
takes possession of in the form of that round piece, 
of various values, of a glaring and fascinating color. 


LITTLE MAN 


219 


All those effects Charles Leflot had undergone in a 
few moments. Fortunately, the boy had the strength 
of mind of a mature man.’ When he had penetrated 
the not very complicated secret of the rouge-et-noir y 
he ventured a small sum. 

He won, placed again, won again, — lost, doubled, 
won. Finally, his two louis, prudently managed, be- 
came two hundred francs. 

Then Charles Leflot realized that he had risked 
enough upon the altar of Chance, and bethought 
himself of the fact that he had a mission to fulfill. 

If Monte-Carlo did not furnish him with the clew 
to the enigma, he would never find it. 

He therefore returned to take his place behind 
Gabrielle in the crowd of loungers who did not wish 
to or could not play, and attentively watched the 
young woman. 

She was very venturesome. 

Piles of louis were heaped up to her left, rows of 
coins to her right, while three notes of one hundred 
francs each lay open before her on the green table. 

It was evident that she was winning. 

She had started out with a few twenty franc pieces, 
and those had sufficed to obtain her first success. 

Suddenly she threw upon the table a handful of 
louis, about two hundred francs. They returned to 
her threefold. 

Quickly Gabrielle gathered the whole together and 
put it in her pocket. After which she rose from the 
gaming-table and looked about her. 


220 


LITTLE MAN 


Charles had anticipated it. At her first movement 
he hastened to change his place, and soon he ap- 
peared to be following with great interest the fate of 
a hundred sou-piece, three tables farther on. 

Gabrielle approached him and touched him lightly 
on the shoulder. 

“Well, well! I have caught you, bad boy! Are 
you biting the fish-hook?’^ 

“I am doing as you do, madame,’’ humbly replied 
the boy. “I am trying my strength.’’ 

“Are you successful.^” 

“Hm! I have not been for the last fifteen min- 
utes,” said Leflot. 

“So you are losing .J”’ 

“I believe I am.” 

“That is not like me. Come!” she added with a 
laugh. “Come away. I must tear you away from 
this spot. Let us go to the hotel and count our 
money.” 

P’tit Homme heaved a deep sigh. 

“You do well to talk, madame! Count our money 
I shall soon have counted mine. Let me at least 
win back my money.” 

She was in haste — and rather nervous. She seized 
his arm. 

“No, no; I know that feeling! One desires to win 
back, and one loses all. One must not pursue Chance. 
Come, I tell you! I will replace those coins you lack. 
Com© 


LITTLE MAN 


221 


He yielded reluctantly, and left the hall, not with- 
out casting a side glance at the table he was leaving, 
carrying away only a sixth part of what he had had 
an hour before. 

They entered the hotel. Gabrielle, with Charles, 
ascended to the second story, and entered her room, 
which she locked cautiously. 

That done, she sank upon a lounge from which she 
sprang up at once, like an elastic-ball. 

‘‘Ha! Ha!’^ she cried with mad delight. “The 
roulette ruins people 1 A good story, a story for chil- 
dren! Fools, yes, it ruins them! But I was sure of 
my martingale. Look!^’ 

And laughing, chattering, dancing, she emptied 
her pockets and spread their contents upon a com- 
mode. 

Charles Leflot looked at her curiously. 

“Is it possible that you have won all that, madame.^ 
You have made — ” 

“A compact with the devil, yes, my boy,^^ she in- 
terrupted merrily. 

He had never seen her thus. She startled him, for 
he believed in the devil. 

“Is she really possessed?” he wondered. 

She was transformed. No one would have recog- 
nized the lovely girl, languid, melancholy and pas- 
sionate by turns, in the creature with the brilliant eyes, 
the bestial laugh, caressing with the palms of her 
hands and with her fingers those piles of gold and 


222 


LITTLE MAN 


silver which she covered with kisses, from which she 
walked away and which she drew near dancing and 
singing, throwing kisses from the tips of her fingers. 

“All this is mine, all this is mine!” she cried covet- 
ously. 

P’tit Homme intuitively knew what to say. 

“Ah, madame, it is nice, is it not, to have money ?” 

She replied with an exclamation of delight: 

“I believe you, my boy, that it is! What it did 
cost me to obtain this. There have been days upon 
which I have felt very badly, you can believe me.” 

Suddenly interrupting herself, she said: 

“See here, I promised to make good your loss. 
How much is it, that I may give it to you at once in 
order not to have to pay the whole. I will count the. 
rest then.” 

Charles colored. Without being able to explain 
the sensation even to himself, that money inspired 
him with horror. 

“Ah, madame, it is only a trifle. Thank you. Do 
not break your treasure for that.” 

“Very well,” said she, busily gathering together 
the mass and assorting it according to its value. “I 
will give it to you another time. You know you will 
not lose anything. It is money well invested.” 

When she had finished arranging the rolls in 
columns she exclaimed: 

“Four thousand, do you hear, innocent.? Four 
thousand! There are four thousand francs.” 


LITTLE MAN 


223 


“That is well, madame,” replied the boy, appar- 
ently in ecstasies. 

“Four thousand!” repeated Gabrielle, clapping her 
hands. “Four thousand with my own money, my 
traveling money, without touching my capital.” 

It was to Charles Leflot a ray of light. 

He suddenly solved the problem, according to the 
plan he had conceived the instant before. 

“And what shall you do with that fortune, madame .?” 

“I shall make it hatch little ones, knave,” she re- 
plied coarsely. 

“Then — you will stake all that .?” 

“What a question!” 

“If you should lose it?” • 

“Did I not tell you I have the martingale?” 

“All the same, if you were to lose — ?” 

She drew from her bodice a small bag of Russian 
leather, hung about her neck by a double chain of 
steel, one of those chains which cannot be broken, 
which would sooner tear off the heads of those whose 
necks they encircle. 

“I have some here, if I lose,” said she, tapping the 
bag; “thirty thousand francs, my little man! " 

That was the decisive moment for the blow medi- 
tated by Charles Leflot. 

He burst into a silly laugh, as he looked straight 
in the girl’s face and said: 

“That is true, I had forgotten. You were very care- 
ful, madame, during the entire journey. Thirty 


224 


LITTLE MAN 


thousand francs? A large sum; the count’s money, 
is it not?^’ 

‘‘The count’s?’’ 

Gabrielle uttered those two words in a hoarse voice, 
pausing before the boy with the air of an animal pos- 
sessed at once with anger and fear, darting at him 
glances in which burned, beneath the empire of fear, 
that sudden madness which on occasions makes 
murderers. 

But Charles was on his guard. He continued with 
the same imperturbable smile: 

“Your count’s money, the Count of Ireland! Is 
that it?” 

She laughed boisterously. 

“Imbecile! It is prince you should say; the Prince 
of Iceland, not Ireland! How you startled me! I 
hope you have not changed my luck by mentioning 
poor Contran!” 

“Count or prince, what matters it? I do not know 
how to distinguish like you.” 

Charles had not spoken of Contran, but he was 
none the less certain of what he wished to know. 


VI 


The lawyer, Jean Levasseur, whom the first days 
of the term left free, sat yawning at his desk. 

“Well,” said he aloud, “I shall certainly not have 
to plead for two weeks. If I could but be of service 
to poor Cloziers! Unfortunately, the solution is 
slow in coming.” 

He had not finished his soliloquy when his footman 
entered, holding in his hand a blue paper, which Jean 
recognized at once. 

“A telegram for monsieur,” said the servant. 

The lawyer hastily broke the seal and read these 
words: 

“Levasseur, lawyer. Boulevard Saint-Michel, Paris. 
Come at once. We have attained our end. You 
alone can terminate all. Leflot.” 

It was dated Nice. But it did not take long for 
Levasseur to discover that the telegram had been 
written at Monaco. 

“Shrewdly,” thought he, “P’tit Homme has taken 
double precaution. I believe, like him, that we have 
attained our end, and that the roulette-table will 
swallow up poor Gontran de Platere's money.” 

Summoning his valet, he gave him this order: 

225 


226 


LITTLE MAN 


“Pack my valise; a change of clothing, three shirts, 
neckties and handkerchiefs. I am going away this 
evening. 

The servant was accustomed to those hasty orders. 
On account of his profession, on account of the celeb- 
rity already justly attained by his talent, Jean Levas- 
seur was frequently called upon to make sudden, and 
sometimes distant trips. . 

He wrote hastily, on a slip of paper, his temporary 
address at a hotel at Nice. 

Then he struck off a letter which he took to the 
post himself: 

“Baroness de Cloziers: 

Saint-Martin-de-Rhe. 

-“Madame: — A telegram from Charles Leflot calls 
me at once to Nice. I believe we have reached the 
climax. Therefore, confidence and hope, more than 
ever. Transmit the news, but very gently, to our dear 
captive. Your respectful and sincere 

“Jean Levasseur. 

“Hotel de P Univers. Nice.^^ 

That done, the lawyer considered the arrangements 
he should make to give battle, which a secret presenti- 
ment warned him would be the last. 

He therefore examined carefully the case of Cloz- 
iers-Platere. He found the numbers of the stolen 
bonds, which by the care of the public minister had 
been given in all the places where they were payable. 


LITTLE MAN 


227 


But as he held that under all circumstances “two 
securities were better than one,” Jean spent the time 
left him before the departure of the train in different 
ways. 

His first visit was to the Lyonnais Bank. 

He sent in his card to the legal adviser and was re- 
ceived at once. 

“My dear confrere,” began Levasseur, “I have not 
the honor of being known by you, however.” 

You are nlistaken, sir,” replied his colleague, “you 
are known by entire Paris, entire France.” 

Jean bowed and smiled. 

“That is a very fine compliment, but, unfortunately, 
that is not what I came in search of. Will you be 
pleased to grant me several moments’ conversation 

“Be seated, I pray you.” 

Levasseur took a seat, and immediately explained 
the object of his visit. 

“Undoubtedly, you have forgotten that I defended 
Baron de Cloziers.?” 

“On the contrary, M. Levasseur, I followed with 
interest the discussion of that case, and your elo- 
quence, which I have had to content m}^self with in 
print, inspired me with a conviction which perhaps 
you have not felt yourself.” 

He smiled mischievously as he uttered those words. 

“What conviction?” asked Jean Levassuer quietly. 

“That of the innocence of your client on the score 
of theft.” 


228 


LITTLE MAH 


The lawyer replied with a dryness which rather dis- 
countenanced his interlocutor; 

“My dear confrere, I never suspect others of that 
of which I am not assured. That is to say, I only 
plead on personal conviction. Baron de Cloziers is 
absolutely innocent. At the time of the trial, I had 
only moral proofs. To-day I have innumerable ma- 
terial proofs, to which only a concordance is lacking 
to unite them into a bundle. It is to form that indis- 
pensable tissue that I came to you, sir, assured in 
advance of your zeal in serving the cause of justice 
and of unrecognized innocence.” 

“You are right, dear M. Levasseur. In what can I 
be useful to you.?” 

The lawyer explained. 

“Since you have followed the case, you will re- 
member that the most convincing argument of the 
impeachment, that which impressed the jury the 
strongest, and in some measure brought about the 
condemnation, was the hypothesis of theft, resting 
upon the disappearance of thirty thousand francs in 
bank-notes and three railroad bonds, paid over by the 
Lyonnais Bank to Count de Platere on ■ the very 
morning of the day on which the latter was killed.” 

The lawyer smiled. 

“How should I forget that detail, my dear sir, since 
it was through my hands that the opposition to the 
payment of those notes was made, if by any possibility 
the thief or his accomplice were to present them at 
our offices?” 


LITTLE MAN 


229 


“That opposition was made immediately, by the 
request of M. Pauly-Reverdiere himself, whose good 
judgment and courtesy I recognize. It was made at 
the same time in the office of the Western company 
and in all the offices of the stock-brokers in France 
and abroad. You have a list.^’^ 

“I have one.’^ 

“Will you be kind enough to look through it, in 
order to be positive that no omissions have been 
made?’’ 

The lawyer produced a printed list from which he 
read aloud the addresses of all the correspondents and 
of all the branches of the Lyonnais Bank. 

Levasseur then continued: 

“Your list has one fault. You have not the name 
of the principality of Monaco. Has your agent at 
Nice been notified?” 

“He should have been,” stammered the lawyer, vis- 
ibly confused. 

“You are not certain. He should be advised. I 
have, indeed, every reason to believe that the thief 
is at Monte-Carlo, that is to say, in the heart of the 
principality. I am even so certain, that we all leave 
this evening for Nice.” 

“It would be deplorable had there been any neglect,” 
said the lawyer in a troubled voice. “I shall telegraph 
at once to our branch at Nice.” 

“Let us repeat the numbers, if you please,” said 
Levasseur. 


230 


LITTLE MAN 


The lawyer took a volume from beside him and 
read: 

‘^Bonds of the Western R. R. Co. Nos. 1854, 
2006, and 7142.’^ 

^^What is the actual market value of those bonds 

The lawyer left his chair and approached the tele- 
phone. 

There followed the ringing of the bell, the “Hello! 
Hello 1 ^' of the summons, then one or two short ques- 
tions. 

After which the lawyer resumed his seat. 

“There is a decline of eight francs. The bonds are 
at 1070 francs.’^ Levasseur laid his hand upon his 
colleague’s desk. 

“Thank you. I have now arrived at a delicate point. 
You just now told me I might count upon your aid 
in throwing light upon the innocence of my client 

“I said so and I repeat it.’^ 

“Well, I am going to appeal to that aid, in asking 
of you a service — somewhat — delicate.’^ 

“Explain yourself, if you please.’^ 

“I will. You will receive from Monaco or from 
Nice to-morro'W, the day after, perhaps in a week, 
a telegram inquiring as to the correctness of the quo- 
tations posted up near the gaming-house at Monte- 
Carlo.’^ 

“I do not understand.*” 

“Pardon me. You will understand. The quota- 
tions will be exact on all the bonds but those afore- 


LITTLE MAN 


231 


said. Those, indeed, will be very high. To the ques- 
tion put to you, you will simply reply by the word 
‘yes,’ which will not compromise you.” 

The lawyer at first shook his head. But on seeing 
Levasseur’s object clearly, he contented himself by 
smiling and replied: 

“My faith, my dear confrere, I ask nothing better 
than to aid you. Only, between us, your means seems 
to me dangerous. A thief who has for an entire year 
kept stolen money without using it, will not be satis- 
fied with the attestations of a placard. He will cer- 
tainly go to Nice where our branch has also posters 
in its offices on Avenue de la Gare. And there, you 
understand, I have no power.” 

Levasseur looked him in the face and asked him 
gayly: “You do not know Monte-Carlo, my dear con- 
frere.?” 

“Alas, no, to my regret! They say it is a place 
of delights.” 

“Luckily,” replied the lawyer, “you must know then 
that what is improbable in any other place, becomes 
probable and possible on access to the. Casino! You 
do not know how far the blindness, the madness of a 
gamester can go.” 

He left,‘ carrying with him the promise of a response 
in the affirmative to the telegraphic question. 

From the Lyonnais Bank, Levasseur went to the 
court, where he reported the lawyer’s information. 
Then, as he was, above all, an orderly and cautious 


232 


LITTLE MAN 


man, he made several purchases, letter-paper and en- 
velopes, not liking to write his missives on hotel 
letter-heads. 

All that took his time until the hour that he was 
comfortably settled in a sleeping-car. He closed his 
eyes and fell asleep. Levasseur knew Nice like a book. 
A drive on the Promenade des Anglais sufficed to con- 
vince him that Gabrielle did not usually walk there. 

He therefore took the two o’clock train to Monte- 
Carlo. 

As he stepped upon the platform at the station, he 
saw before him Charles Leflot’s smiling face. 

‘‘You have done well to come, sir,” said P’tit 
Homme. “Madame’s affairs are in a bad state.” 

“So much the better!” replied Levasseur smiling. 
“She has not her martingale then.^^” 

“It only succeeded the first day. Martingales are 
only for horses. And Chance is not a horse.” 

“No,” said Jean, “it is a jade which unhorses the 
best cavaliers. And your patroness has never been 
a horsewoman. She was a laundress, I have been 
told.” 

On climbing the marble steps of the garden, the 
two accomplices settled upon the hours for and places 
of clandestine meeting, for it was necessary that 
Gabrielle should not suspect their intentions. 

“Listen,” concluded the lawyer, “since she is stop- 
ping at Hotel de Russie, I will go to Hotel d’ Angle- 
terre. We shall meet, in the morning, on the road 


LITTLE MAN 


233 


from Turbie, behind the gardens, in the evening on 
the descent from Condamine. Does she walk that 
way 

“Madame?. She walks from Table No. 4 to Table 
No 

And the boy withdrew, laughing heartily. 

Charles Leflot had told the truth. Mlle.de Lange’s 
affairs were not in a very flourishing condition. 

She had been at Monte-Carlo two weeks. 

She had used those fifteen days conscientiously. 
For it is to be remarked that “the pleasure’^ tasted at 
the gaming-table is the most difficult, most wearing 
work. 

The sitting posture when one can take the chair 
of a ruined man, the standing posture in contrary 
cases; constantly the tic-tac-tac-tac of the ball, the 
clink of the money on the baize, the rattling of the 
rakes, the monotonous formula of the croupiers, pro- 
nouncing, in their hoarse voices, the three phrases: 
“Faites VOS jeux, messieurs! Riennebaplus! Rouge, 
impair, manque ou noire, pair, passe. 

By that regimen madness is often germinated in the 
congested brain. Gabrielle de Lange led that life 
for two weeks. 

The success of the first day had only been the bait 
cast by chance to all debutants and novices. It had 
continued during most of the second day, and the 
young woman, intoxicated, fancying herself already 


234 


LITTLE MAN 


the possessor of several millions, at the moment rep- 
resented by some six or seven thousand francs, had 
played furiously. 

Her luck changed. At midnight, Gabrielle had 
lost fifteen hundred francs. 

She had been obliged to make demands upon the 
money-bag, and Gontran de Platere’s notes were 
used for the first time. The third day she lost six 
thousand francs. 

She won them on the fourth day, and hope returned 
to her. She wisely wished to make up her loss. She 
succeeded. 

But her ambition did not stop there. She returned 
the fifth day and left four thousand francs on the 
table. 

Thoroughly disgusted with tjie system imported 
from Paris, the woman trusted to an elderly bachelor 
whom she paid three hundred francs for counsel. 

At first she won one hundred and twenty francs to 
immediately lose three thousand. 

Then she was furious. 

The stolen thirty thousand francs melted away. 
The girl groaned, wept, stormed and, inexperienced, 
allowed her despair to be seen by all the people in 
the hotel. Naturally, they hastened to present her 
bill. 

It was not very large, scarcely eight hundred francs, 
Gabrielle having lived at the rate of one hundred francs 
per day. 


LITTLE MAN 


235 


But she had only five hundred francs. She paid 
two hundred francs on account, which they accepted 
reluctantly. 

Gabrielle had reserved three hundred francs to break 
the bank. She meditated a great stroke. 

For six days, not daring to play, she repaired to 
the Casino, remaining at the gaming-tables from noon 
to midnight, calculating, studying, planning. 

This is what she conceived: the plan of Waterloo 
before the combat of Quatre-Bras. 

To apply such measures, two qualities were requi- 
site: irnperturbable composure and untiring patience. 

Gabrielle possessed neither the one nor the other 
of those qualities. Unnerved by the emotions of the 
preceding days, haunted by the necessity of freeing 
herself from her embarrassment, she only approached 
with a presentiment of coming evil. Impressionable 
people never succeed in conquering Chance. 

The young woman’s first play, indeed, prudently 
made, brought her twelve hundred francs. 

She left the salons and went into the gardens to 
refresh herself. Arrived there, her wits partially re- 
turned. She thought of returning to the hotel to pay 
her bill at once. 

On her way, Gabrielle met the devil. 

Yes, the devil, in the form of a German Jew, with 
hooked nose, with talons like a bird of prey, who 
murmured the one arnofous pbrage which seduces at 
Monte-Carlo; 


236 


LITTLE MAN 


“My pretty little lady, I lend at fifteen per cent 
only/^ 

“Go and hang yourself,” she replied with humor. 

But the usurer was not put out of countenance. 

If I were dead, you would not find my equal, my 
little lady.” 

She turned and stared at him. 

“What an ugly bird!” she exclaimed mockingly. 

The knave laughed as well. 

“I am ugly, but I loan money at fifteen only, at 
fifteen. My name is Mathias Trocmann. I can be 
found at Cafe Turc, Place Massena, Nice.” ’ 

And he left her discharging the Parthian arrow: 

On all bonds, you know, stocks, obligations and 
the rest.” 

Gabrielle was startled. 

What had the man said.? He loaned at the rate 
of fifteen per cent only on bonds, obligations and the 
rest. What rest.? Was it on the beauty of lovely 
women.? Ah, no! He was decidedly too ugly! 

She had fifteen hundred francs upon her, and the 
bag still contained the three Western bonds stolen 
from the warm corpse of Gontran de Platere. How 
much were they worth, those bonds for five hundred 
francs? 

She knew very little of the mechanism of the 
Bourse. 

As she left the Casino in order “to take something” 
at the Cosmopolitan Cafe opposite, her glance fell 
upon a placard affixed to the door. 


LITTLE MAN 


237 


It was the quotation from the Paris Bourse dated 
the preceding day, at half-past four. 

Rapidly the woman's eyes ran over the columns. 
She paused at the line which read: 

“Western: Lowest: 1080. Highest: 1090.’^ 


VII 


When she was in her room at the hotel, she made 
up her account. She laid out fifteen hundred francs 
in cash. 

To that she added the proceeds from the three 
bonds. 

The three bonds, each at 1090 francs, representing 
3270 francs, added to the 1500 already acquired, 
made a total of 4770 francs. 

But, from that sum, there would have to be de- 
ducted, in negotiating with a broker, almost two per 
cent, which would reduce the amount to 4237 francs. 

With Mathias Trocmann, the loss would amount 
to 490 francs, leaving still for Gabrielle 4280. 

She reasoned thus: 

“One hundred francs on a douzaine, one hundred 
francs on a column, the column wins. I get one 
hundred, two hundred francs the same way. With 
five hundred francs on each, I reach eight hundred 
francs in three ventures; at the tenth venture, I win 
ten thousand francs, sixty thousand at the twentieth.’’ 

“Come, come!” said she to herself. “I must hes- 
itate no longer.” 

With a nervous, feverish gesture, she mmd the 

m 


LITTLE MAN 


239 


purse and opened it. A cry of joy escaped her breast 
for she there discovered a surprise. 

Beneath the folded bonds, a gold piece appeared. 
She must have put it away and have forgotten it at 
the time of her departure for Paris. 

Insignificant as the cause of the pleasure is, one 
enjoys it in proportion as it surprises. 

It seemed to the woman like a good omen. She 
was superstitious enough for that. 

And yet, when she took the three printed sheets 
from their place of concealment, she could not re- 
strain a shudder of terror. 

Those bonds, which should be the source of her 
fortune, might prove equally to be her ruin. 

Since those t/srrible bonds had been in her hands, 
Gabrielle had not ceased trembling. 

And now as she spread them before her, it seemed 
to her that the letters were in confusion and darted 
at her flames full of menacing signification. 

A noise in the corridor threw her into a veritable 
panic. She rose, seized the bonds find prepared to 
thrust them into her bosom. 

For several seconds, she stood there, erect, trem- 
bling, possessed by a nameless fear. 

Still, it was no policeman. It was only Charles 
Leflot, who called to her through the key-hole: 

“It is I, madame? Can I come in.?” 

She drew a deep breath, and replied: 

“Com® in, my boy,” 


240 


LITTLE MAN 


He advanced with a dejected air, holding a bill in 
one hand. 

‘‘What is that?’’ asked Gabrielle angrily. 

“That, madame, whined the boy, “is the bill which 
the proprietor of the hotel just gave me, before every- 
one, saying: 

“‘Here, rascal, take this to your mistress, and tell 
her that if she does not pay this to-morrow morning, 
I will turn you both out of doors and keep your lug- 
gage.’” 

Gabrielle took the paper feverishly. 

The bill was for six hundred francs. 

“Six hundred francs!” she screamed. “Six hundred 
francs! Three days ago I gave him two hundred.” 

“You have spent something since then?” said P’tit 
Homme, innocently. 

“The thieves! The thieves!” cried Garbielle in 
a paroxysm of rage. When she had thus given vent 
to her anger, she seemed to have taken a resolution. 

“Listen, boy,” said she, seizing Charles by the arm, 
“do you want to earn ten louis?” 

He laughed. 

“Formerly, in her generosity, madame gave me 
twenty sous. Ten louis are not to be refused.” 

“This is what you must do,” said she, putting a louis 
in his hand. “You must take the train for Nice. 
You must go to Cafe Turc and you must ask the 
waiter to point out to you a certain Mathias Troc- 
mann, a German Jew.” 


LITTLE MAN 


241 


“Well, madame — And — then?’^ 

“Then you will approach the old rogue and ask 
him if he wishes to buy some bonds at the price he 
proposed to me — fifteen percent.” 

“What do you call them.-^” 

“You know very well — bonds. As soon as you have 
his answer you must make an appointment with him 
for to-morrow and return hither. Now, go! You can 
catch the three o’clock train.” 

As he left the room, she called after him: 

“Ah, I forgot — Take this to the proprietor and tell 
him that I will pay him to-morrow night, and that 
we will leave his house. That is all. Go!” 

Instead of hastening to the Monte-Carlo station, 
P’tit Homme rustled at once to La Condamine. 

There, Jean Levasseur awaited him, smoking a 
cigar. 

“Well.^” he inquired. “What news.^” 

“Quick, quick, sir,” replied the boy without paus- 
ing. “Follow me! We will take the train to Nice 
from Monaco.” 

The lawyer was forced to break his rule and follow 
in the boy’s hasty footsteps. The latter told him on 
the way, in a few words, what had just taken place, 
and the two arranged the line of conduct to be main- 
tained towards one another. 

It was decided that they should separate at the sta- 
tion at Nice, that while Charles went in search of the 
usurer, Levasseur would proceed leisurely to meet him 


242 


LITTLE MAN 


at the cafe appointed, where he would order some 
refreshments and seat himself not far distant from the 
group in order to be able to overhear the entire con- 
versation. 

Matters came about exactly as they arranged. 

‘^Well!’^ said the lawyer, as he relighted his cigar 
on leaving the coach. ‘‘Of what use is my shrewd- 
ness It is the genius of this gamin which is to bring 
about all these issues, and this P’tit Homme holds 
the threads of our divers destinies. It is now useless 
to telegraph to Paris and to advise the Lyonnais 
Bank. It is necessary to watch this German Jew.’’ 

As he soliloquized, Jean Levasseur reached Place 
Massena, at the end of which, to the right, he per- 
ceived the gilt shield of the Cafe Turc. 

When he entered, Charles Leflot had already 
opened fire upon the usurer. 

He said to him aloud: 

“Then, M. Trocmann, it is agreed, is it not.^ You 
lend at fifteen per cent.^ But when you buy the title, 
it is less, is it not 

“Positively,” thought Levasseur, “that fellow is 
fitted for a higher destiny. He would make a Vidocq 
No. 2.” 

Meanwhile the dialogue continued. 

The German Jew did not like to have his interloc- 
utor speak so loudly. He was not deaf, and he did 
not like the public, especially in a cafe, to be initiated 
into his “little affairs.” 


LITTLE MAN 


243 


“Softly, softly,’’ said he. “You speak too loudly, 
my young friend.” 

And Charles, affecting to begin softly, ended by 
speaking very loudly: 

“You think then that it is not more than three per 
cent for discount.^” 

“I did not say that, I did not say that. But to 
oblige the lady, I will only take seven. That is very 
reasonable.” 

“Nothing to be done in that case, my comrade,” 
objected the boy, with an assurance which caused 
those present to burst into laughter, while the lawyer, 
infected by the hilarity, hid his face behind a number 
of the “Times.” 

“See here,” said Mathias, reflecting that he would 
lose one hundred francs at least on the transaction, 
if he persisted. “I will take five.” 

“Ah, that is somewhat more acceptable, my good 
man,” replied the young servant. “I will take your 
answer to my mistress. If it suits her, she will call 
upon you to-morrow. Where shall she find you.^” 

Mathias Trocmann considered several seconds. 
Then thinking that the cafe was too public, he whis- 
pered in his companion’s ear: 

“Let her come to-morrow at five o’clock to the hall 
of the Lyonnais Bank, on Avenue de la Gare.” 

As low as the place of meeting had been mentioned, 
Levasseur heard it. 

“Ah! Ah!” thought he, “in the jaws of the lion! 
Deny, after that, a Providence!” 


244 


LITTLE MAN 


The usurer left the cafe, accompanied by. the boy, 
who cast a sly glance of intelligence at the lawyer. 

When they had disappeared, Jean Levasseur in his 
turn left the cafe, and repaired at once to the central 
police station at Nice. 

“What do you want, sir.^^’ asked the magistrate 
politely. 

“Sir,’^ replied Jean, “I require you respectfully to 
put one of your agents at my disposal. It may lead to 
the arrest of one, possibly two thieves.’^ 

“Ha!” said the functionary with a iaugh. “An 
arrest 1” 

“Yes, which will create a sensation, I^promise you, 
sir.” 

On the latter’s invitation, the lawyer took a chair 
and explained the affair in detail. When he finished, 
the commissioner replied: “Very well, sir. Be at the 
place indicated at the hour appointed. The surest 
and most intelligent of our men will be there — in civil 
dress.” 

“How will I know him.^” 

The magistrate smiled. 

“It is unnecessary! You have only to raise your 
voice. He will recognize you.” 


VIII 


P'tit Homme had fulfilled his mistress’ orders. 

He had been to Nice and returned on the five 
o’clock train. An hour later he rejoined Gabrielle 
after having sought her for some time in the neigh- 
borhood of the Casino. The woman, burning with 
impatience, had sunk upon a bench in the garden, in 
the shade of the grove, near the grand staircase. 

It was she who saw Charles Leflot pass. 

She called him; he hastened to her. And imme- 
diately questions and answers were exchanged. 

“Then you have seen him? Reply.” 

“I have seen, I have spoken to him, and we have 
agreed upon something, if it meets with your ap- 
proval.” 

“What are his terms?” 

“Quite reasonable. He says that if madame pre- 
fers to sell him the bonds, it will not be more than 
five per cent discount.” 

“Five per cent to buy my titles! The thief! They 
are all thieves here.” 

“That may be, madame. However, I can only 
repeat what has been told me. I do not even know 
what sort of a beast discount is.” 

If Gabrielle had been in a laughing mood, she would 
245 


246 


LITTLE MAN 


certainly have laughed at her factotum’s innocent air. 

A sigh escaped her. 

/^Well! We must submit to that! To-morrow I 
shall have the means to repair all.” 

And, indeed, she was not so greatly mistaken, for, 
fortune aiding her, it was not impossible that she 
would succeed in winning a large sum. 

Unfortunately for her, justice, which never loses 
her rights, at length was about to demand an account. 

The woman was overcome by weariness and dis- 
gust. The strain of the past two weeks upon her mind 
had been too much for her. An unconquerable un- 
easiness possessed her. A sort of presentiment haunted 
her. 

She told herself that it was owing to her change of 
habits. 

It was certain that the lovely Gabrielle had singu- 
larly altered in her appearance since her arrival at 
Monte-Carlo. The life she led in Paris had occasioned 
her no mental, no intellectual exertion, and then there 
were eleven months in which she had in a measure 
retired from the world. 

Here, it was not the nights of wakefulness, since 
the Casino closed at midnight, it was not the excesses 
of the table nor those of love which had wearied her, 
since Gabrielle, her purse well-filled, had no need of 
subsidies. 

It was anxiety which devoured Gabrielle de Lange. 

Her brilliant complexion had become yellow and 


LITTLE MAN 


247 


cadaverous, the roses in her cheeks had turned to a 
deep red which resembled copperas. The lines of 
her face, themselves once ^o finely traced, were spoiled 
by the constant contraction of her brows, and as for 
the form so harmoniously molded, it had become 
heavy and gave indications of approaching obesity. 

She had fallen asleep upon her bench in the cafe 
to which she had repaired; sleep brought her only 
feverish dreams from which she started amid the 
laughter of the waiters and the patrons. Exasperated 
at the occurrence, she asked for her bill and settled it 
at once. 

That done, she retired. But she could not sleep, 
and to pass the weary hours, Gabrielle read and re- 
read the text of the bonds, from the formula at the 
head to the numbers. 

She soon knew those accursed numbers by heart: 
1854, 2006 and 7142. 

Towards four o’clock in the morning, her eyelids 
grew heavy. Her head fell back upon her pillow, and 
when she re-opened her eyes, the sun was shining. It 
must have been ten o’clock. Mile, de Lange sprang 
from her bed and began her toilette. She took a bath, 
had recourse to her best rice-powder, to her sweet- 
est unguents, wishing to be armed from top to toe 
for the last grand battle. 

Mathias Trocmann was hideous, but, after all, one 
could not tell. A wise woman always prepares her 
means and assures her retreat. 


248 


LITTLE MAN 


At noon, she sent for P’tit Homme. She was told 
that the boy had gone down to the bay. She set out 
to look for him, and found him on the Condamine. 

Charles Leflot had a passion for cold baths. 

She took him to the hotel and wished to treat him. 

He pleaded lack of appetite. 

In reality he revolted at receiving benefits from the 
woman he was about to deliver up to justice. 

At a quarter to five Gabrielle entered the hall of 
the Lyonnais Bank, at Nice. Mathias Trocmann was 
not yet there. But there were present two gentle- 
men, one of whom Gabrielle would certainly have 
recognized, had he not been leaning over a gate, his 
back to the public. 

The other, a middle-aged man with a smooth face 
and blue glasses, was walking about, his hands behind 
his back. 

Gabrielle who, strange to say, no longer felt a shade 
of anxiety, seated herself on one of the wooden seats 
placed at the large tables for the accommodation of 
customers. Seated as she was, she could watch the 
door. 

As the clock struck five, the door opened, admit- 
ting the odious form of the German Jew, Mathias 
Trocmann. 

He advanced with a crafty smile. 

Absorbed as she was in contemplating him, Ga- 
brielle did not notice ‘that the man at the gate had 
raised and turned his head, while the man who was 
pacing the floor stood still. 


LITTLE MAN 


249 


Mathias had observed that detail. He was about 
to inform his lovely companion of the circumstance 
when she, imprudently, addressed him in a loud 
voice : 

^‘Good day, M. Trocmann! How. are you to-day 

The middle-aged man had resumed his walk to and 
fro, and the man at the gate his former position. 

Therefore the Israelite ventured to be facetious. 

After all, what could a law-abiding man have to 
fear.^^ At the most, that one of his kind, but one who 
employed violence, might steal his purse, after having 
stunned him by a blow. 

In such a public place, however, would it be pos- 
sible.^ Pshaw! There were officials at all the doors, 
there were policemen on the streets, and every one 
knew that they were there to assure safety to Jewish 
usurers, from Germany or of other nationalities. 

Consequently, Mathias Trocmann made so bold as 
to be gallant to Gabrielle. 

^^You see, little lady,’’ said he, with an abominable 
grimace, ‘‘that you have come to meet good Mathias 
Trocmann. You have come even sooner than I thought 
you would.” 

She found him so grotesque and repulsive that she 
prepared to make merry at his expense. 

“You can then scent the people who have need of 
you, old man.^” 

“I can always anticipate pretty women who are 
preparing to smile upon me.” 


250 


LITTLE MAN 


‘^Perhaps you fancy that it is for your good looks, 
Jew of my heart?’’ 

‘‘Not at all, little lady, not at all. It is for the good 
looks of my money-bag which has round, yellow eyes. 
When the little ladies see those eyes, they think them 
very handsome, ha, ha, ha!” 

And he laughed a horrible laugh which was like 
that of a hyena. 

Gabrielle had no desire to banter longer with the 
unclean despoiler of men. 

“Come!” said she, “I am not here to be made love 
to! My groom called upon you yesterday on my be- 
half and made the conditions of the bargain: ten per 
cent discount, if I borrow, five per cent, if I sell.” 

The usurer exclaimed: 

“I did not say that, little lady! I did not mention 
ten per cent.” 

“You are an old liar, M. Trocmann,” cried Gabrielle, 
who was herself an accomplished liar; “you say that 
because my groom is not here,” 

“He is here,” said a voice behind the Jew and Ga- 
brielle, 

Gabrielle turned in astonishment. 

“Ah! You "have come too? I did not tell you to, 
however!” 

“Oh!” sneered P'tit Homme. “I had no need of 
permission. I came to see the farce.” 

“Well!” she concluded, “since you are here, you 
can repeat to this old rascal what I came hither to 
say.” 


LITTLE MAN 


251 


As she spoke thus, Gabrielle drew from her bosom 
her small bag. 

Several persons entered the hall. 

Mathias cast a suspicious glance around him. Those 
witnesses made him uneasy. He was eager to ter- 
minate the affair. Beasts of prey do not like the light.- 

“Let me see your papers, little lady,” said he^ in- 
stead of replying to Gabrielle’s allegations. 

The latter, also .anxious to finish, had already 
opened the bag. She drew from it three bonds, which 
she spread upon the table, side by side. 

“Ah! Ahl Westerns?” said Mathias. “They have 
declined.” 

“What, declined?” cried the woman. “They were 
at 1090 last night.” 

The Jew laughed coarsely and disclosed to view 
his yellow teeth, as he glanced at Mile, de Lange 

“You are not correctly informed, little lady. It 
should be 1074 — ^ decline of four francs since the last 
closing price. I will tell you how much that is worth.” 

He took out a slovenly pocket-book, drew from it 
a pencil and began to figure. 

In the meantime, he said: 

“That is, if I buy.” 

“Buy then!” she replied humorously. “It is all the 
same. I shall examine the quotations.” 

Mathias had finished his rapid calculation. 

“It will cost you one hundred and sixty-one francs 
ten centimes discount, thirty-three francs commis- 
sion.” 


252 


LITTLE MAN 


“Thief cried Gabrielle, furiously. 

Her face was distorted, her pink nails were ready 
to scratch the Jew’s ugly visage. 

“You can take it or leave it, little lady,’^ sneered 
he. “If you like, I will pay you 3027 francs, 90 cen- 
times.’’ 

“Well,” she acquiesced, “take them.” 

Before taking the money from his pocket, Mathias 
extended his hand toward the papers, in order to be 
sure of them. 

Another hand was laid upon them before his. The 
Israelite, who turned livid, and Gabrielle de Lange, 
who turned crimson, saw, seated before them, on the 
other side of the table, the man who, just before, 
had seemed so busy at the gate. 

It was no other than Jean Levasseur, the lawyer, 
who had also been present at the rendezvous. 

Before the two actors in the drama which was be- 
ing played had recovered from their terrified surprise, 
he raised his voice: 

“Gentlemen,” he cried, addressing the employes, 
whose curious eyes peered through the gratings, “will 
one of you be kind enough to immediately inform the 
police?” 

At those words, the man with the dark glasses ad- 
vanced. 

“I am delegated by the central commissioner to 
assist you, sir,” said he with a bow. 

“Very well,” replied the lawyer. “In that case, I 





i < 



I require a ou to arrest this woman 


P. 253. 







LITTLE MAN 


253 


require you to arrest this woman,” he concluded, 
pointing to Gabrielle, who turned pale. 

“Then it is not for me,” stammered M. Trocmann, 
choked by emotion and not knowing whether to trem- 
ble or to rejoice. 

“Get out, beast,” replied the agent, rudely pushing 
him out of the hall. 

Gabrielle, in her bewilderment, perceived P’tit 
Homme, who glanced slyly at her. 

“Caught, my beauty!” he replied to the distressed 
appeal she made to him. 

At the same time, Jean Levasseur coldly and iron- 
ically added: “Mile. Gabrielle Pantois, alias de 
Lange, I regret what is about to happen. But it is 
your own fault. It will soon be a year that I have 
awaited the^papers stolen from Count de Platere, in 
order to set M. de Cloziers at liberty 1” 


EPILOGUE 


Three months later, a scene much more touching 
was enacted in the parlor of La Grande Roquette, 
the prison to which Robert de Cloziers had been 
transferred at his request. 

Gabrielle de Lange had been sentenced to two 
years’ imprisonment for committing theft upon the 
dead body of Count de Platere. Then the crime of 
perjury brought against her had transformed the sen- 
tence for theft into five years’ imprisonment. 

Immediately after sentence was pronounced, the 
Court of Cassation had admitted the appeal for the 
revision of Baron de Cloziers’ trial. 

The prisoner was to appear the following day be- 
fore the court on the simple charge of having mortally 
wounded Count de Platere, the charge of murder 
having been set aside. 

Robert de Cloziers, detained at La Roquette, was 
still submitted to prison regimen. But how that 
regimen had changed. He had a room near the in- 
firmary and his meals were brought from the gov- 
ernor’s table. 

The change had been, in some measure, brought 
about by the voice of opinion, which was entirely in 
the baron’s favor. 


254 


LITTLE MAN 


255 


On this particular day, on a lovely June morning, 
Robert, while awaiting his transfer to the Concier- 
gerie, was conversing with his wife, the lawyer, Jean 
Levasseur, and the magistrate, M. Pauly-Reverdiere. 

Mathilde, rather pale, but more beautiful than ever, 
seemed to be a prey to emotion. 

The lawyer spoke first. 

“My dear Robert,” said he, “we have come to re- 
mind you that the time has come for the production 
of your only means of defense.” 

The baron’s brow clouded over. 

He replied: 

“My dear friend, in what do those means of sup- 
port consist.^” 

“In this; Mme. de Cloziers must acknowledge her 
crime of perjury, and we will produce a similar depo- 
sition from Charles Leflot. Be pleased to notice that 
the accusation of theft having been annulled by the 
fact of the condemnation of Gabrielle de Lange, -you 
have only now to reply to that of violence having 
occasioned death.” 

“I know that. But what would avail the denunci- 
ation of Mme. de Cloziers and the testimony of 
Charles Leflot, I pray you.?” 

“Simply to annul likewise the charge of murder, 
since, in killing Count de Platere, you employed the 
right which the law accords to outraged husbands.” 

“And the consequence would be.?” 

“Your acquittal and immediate release.” 



256 


LITTLE MAN 


Robert passed his hand several times over his brow. 

He trembled. 

‘‘Naturally,’' he asked, “the final result of such an 
acquittal would be the prosecution of young Leflot 
and of — my wife.^” 

The lawyer and M. Pauly-Reverdiere inclined 
their heads simultaneously. Two scalding tears rolled 
down Mathilde’s cheeks. 

“You do not reply, sirs,” again said the baron. 
“Have I spoken correctly?” 

And as they maintained silence, he asked: 

“And if I do not wish to produce those means of 
which you speak, sir?” 

The magistrate smiled: 

“In that case, the tribunal will be forced to judge 
you upon the fact of a violence such as is mentioned 
in the examination made by me, and in setting aside 
the motives of theft and premeditation, to condemn 
you for having caused death by wounding the count.” 

“So that my refusal to produce a defense is equal 
to an acceptance, pure and simple, of the proceedings 
of the examination? Is that it, sir?” 

“That is it. I wish to remind you that it will be 
read before the audience and that you will be called 
on to sign it at the same time as that of the actual 
examination, which will make mention of that acquies- 
cence.” 

“Thank you, sir,” replied Robert. “Now, my dear 
Levasseur, will you tell me on what proof rest the 


LITTLE MAN 


257 


concordant declarations of Mme. de Cloziers and of 
Charles Leflot?^^ 

“On overwhelming proof, contained in this letter,’’ 
said the lawyer, holding under the baron's eyes a 
square envelope, post-marked and addressed to Count 
de Platere, Rue Spontini. 

Robert de Cloziers turned pale. 

“What is that letter.?” he asked in an altered voice. 

“Proof that you spoke the truth in your first de- 
fense,” said M. Pauly-Reverdiere. 

Robert had taken the fatal missive. 

He trembled so that his whole frame was shaken. 
The tears gushed from his eyes. He sank into a chair 
which Jean Levasseur handed him. 

“Before employing that means,” said the prisoner, 
“I desire to know it. My dear sir, this parlor is very 
dark and my eyes are very tired. Will you be kind 
enough to give mb a match.? You are a great smoker, 
I know.” 

And he tried to call up a smile to his features con- 
vulsed by sorrow. 

Without a word, the lawyer handed him a box of 
tapers. Then Mathilde, up to that time paralyzed, 
rose. She clasped her hands and, kneeling before her 
husband: “Robert,” she implored, “I have suffered 
all sorts of tortures. I am ready and I accept in ad- 
vance my sentence. But I beseech you, do not read 
that letter!” 

Overcome by grief, she sank with her face on the 
baron's knees. His trouble terrified her. 


258 


LITTLE MAN 


He had taken the letter from the envelope. With 
the tips of his uncertain fingers, he succeeded in tak- 
ing from the box a match which he lighted at once. 

Then steadying his voice: 

“So you say, my dear Levasseur, that it is the only 
proof establishing the fault.” 

“Yes,” replied Levasseur, “but it is sufficient.” 

Mathilde’ wept. 

“Pray, Robert, do not read it!” 

The baron gently pushed her away. 

“Perish then the testimony of the fault at the same 
time as its memory!” 

And he simultaneously held the letter and the en- 
velope to the flames. 

A light burned in the dark parlor. 

“What are you doing?” exclaimed Mathilde, trying 
to grasp her husband’s arm. 

He shook the remains of the missive upon the floor. 

With a passionate gesture, he raised and pressed 
her to his heart. 

“Sirs,” said the baron in a high, clear voice, “I 
take you to witness that, in a moment of frenzy, I 
dared to suspect the noblest, most devoted, purest of 
women. She has forgiven me this suspicion, but I 
have not forgiven myself. That is to say, M. Pauly- 
Reverdiere, that I recognize the correctness of your 
report and that I will declare it in that of your con- 
frere, accepting in advance the decision of new judges 
as I have accepted that of the others,” 


LITTLE MAN 


259 


‘‘Robert, my beloved Robert!’^ murmured Mathilde, 
who was fainting. 

The lawyer and the judge at the same time offered 
their hands to the prisoner. 

Both sobbed. 

The next day, at the hearing, the president asked 
Robert in a tone almost respectful: 

“M. de Cloziers, have you nothing to allege in your 
defense.^^’ 

“Nothing, sir,’’ he replied. 

Consequently, the tribunal withdrew to deliberate. 

The sentence was determined. 

•The tribunal condemned Baron de Cloziers to a 
year in prison for having occasioned the count’s death. 

But the baron’s confinement had lasted eighteen 
months. He was, in consequence, set at liberty in 
twenty-four hours. 

P’tit Homme, that goes without saying, is no longer 
in service. 

Thanks to the liberality of the defunct, augmented 
by that of Robert de Cloziers, of Levasseur himself, 
he was enabled to enter college. 

To make amends for his lack of early education, 
he took four classes in two years. 

Soon, he completed philosophy, after which he 
began law, under the direction of the lawyer, who 
engaged him in advance as his secretary. 


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